Rating: 9.5/10
Release: 1 May 2018
Label: Independent

Do you remember the last time you were immediately blown away by a band you heard for the first time? That doesn’t happen every week, month of even year. In truth, the first few spins Turkish Kara Han made a very good impression, but the blown away part started a little later. Now I can’t hear their EP without admiring each song. Turkey is hardly known for their thriving folk metal scene. Most common heard metal is black, death and thrash. With the occasional melodic death metal gem such as Khepra. Even more astonishing to hear this EP.

With a running time of only 17 minutes we get to enjoy a one minute intro and five songs. It’s hard to describe all that’s going on. Throat singing, two instrumental gems, serious guitar melodies, happy rhythms, Oriental lines, and did I just hear a trumpet? What’s even more astonishing that the band doesn’t need death growls or black shrieks and constant double bass drums to keep our attention. The songs are short and differ from each other. The Oriental melodies give the band an own identity. Very talented musicians at work here. The lightness of a lot of parts of this EP surprise me as well, but that’s me being biased over seeing Turks as the warriors they have been for ages in history.

Every song has it’s merits. And yet there is one song I can’t stop listening to. And that’s Hicaz Mandıra. What fine melodies and rhythms! Think hard rock of the seventies (Focus, Rainbow), but louder. And at times it reminds me of power metallers Arrayan Path from Cyprus. Best song I have heard in the last few years. I am going to stop writing now and listen to it again. And again. And again. Fantastic stuff. And this is a debut, folks! Insane.

Tracklist

1. Osmanli Tokadi
2. Hücum Marşı (Nevâ Çeng-i Harbî)
3. Gafil Ne Bilir (Mehterhane-i Hakani-i Harp Marşı)
4. Yürekler Kabarık
5. Hicaz Mandıra