Ahoora - Awkward Diary [2010] (Progressive/Post-Rock)
Lable : ZirZamin
Remember AHOORA? It's a metal band from Iran and you can't miss them because there are not many metal bands coming from this country due to reasons that surpass this small review. They are also an example of determination because they chased their dreams overcoming every possible obstacle (prohibitions, cancellations of concerts, denial of leaving the country, passport problems, interruption of the recording process due to social turbulence, being presented as terrorists in an international Slayer tribute cd and many more) and they finally released their latest album “Awkward Diary” in an international label, actually the Iranian label of U.S.A. since they are not allowed to do it within their country - business knows no gods...
If after listening to this record someone tells you that this band's first gig was full of Iced Earth covers, you will surely feel confused – although John Schaffer is being mentioned in the credits as a never-ending inspiration. There is no sign of traditional heavy metal in “Awkward Diary” save the last track “Egoless” (and maybe the second one, “Unattended”) where some riffs with a proper metal guitar distortion appear. Until then what characterizes this album is a general progressive sound and lots of different styles blended in an atmosphere created by mid tempo tunes, lots of cuts and many changes of musical direction. AHOORA experiment a lot with the keyboards and that leads to the use of totally different sounds in each song, as also dialogues from movies (“No matter what... god still loves you!”). Some typical progressive patterns are evident, nevertheless blurred and transformed by all the ideas that accompany them. In fact, this album could be labeled something like progressive trip hop as it covers all the musical range from Massive Attack to Dream Theater. The band has obviously moved forward, I can't really tell what's their connection with metal anymore, although what “Awkward Diary” stands for can be appreciated for what it is breaking the boundaries labels enforce on music. Songs like “Closure” and especially “Perfect Day” bring to mind Muse in their most playful attempts to approach jazz and electronica, not to mention the similarity in many song titles. The compositions are not long, therefore couldn't be tiring at all, on the contrary they are nice shots of cool ideas that are put forward with smart orchestration and arrangement of the instruments in use. The lyrics are condensed, well articulated and even dangerous for the band (“God and nothing have a lot in common; Nameless and dead”). The first single of “Awkward Diary”, “Crimson Baby” is dedicated to those who died innocently in 2009's demonstrations in Tehran. Any comments?
It's exciting to see a band that started within the classic heavy metal context reproducing all the cliches of the genre, but radically changed its sound to something more diverse and inspired showing guts, devotion and persistence. Their third album is on its way and if they show the same punctuality this could easily be their breakthrough. Until then judge them by their diary...
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