Sechem – ‘Disputes with my Ba’ (2018)
Rating: 8/10
Release: 21 September 2018
Label: Atcys Records
I think it’s wonderful to be able to know different melodies that bring us closer to ancient cultures around the world, an example of this is Sechem’s latest work, and their first full length: “Disputes with My Ba”. An album with an ancient Egypt thematic, that was taken by this Spanish band as a flag and has been able to handle starting from its cover -wonderful piece of art by the way- to the last track of the album, a style that we can identify and enjoy.
The title “Disputes with My Ba” speaks of an internal struggle since the “Ba” is a spiritual entity with a direct connection to the soul, but it is also a denotation of power and strength. We can feel this force in many of its riffs, and we could say that the melodies that Miss Marta Sacri brings us with her flute, are the soul of this Egyptian-metal sound.
The album starts with the strength and power necessary to mark a style with great potential to highlight where we have a lot of Viking or Northern Europe influence, and where increasingly we can see bands struggling to stand out with different sounds and cultural proposals no well known in the Folk-Metal scene. The growls are not so frequent and in my opinion, more could be an excellent company to Ikena’s beautiful voice.
Among the tracks of this album, I highlight “Mummify me!” for its contagious melodies and pleasant changes to the ear; “Bird in a Cage” I liked how it starts with great force and I think it can easily reach different types of audience. Some songs have very interesting musical variations like “The Shipwrecked Sailor” one of my favorites with “Waltz of the Three Fates” that instrumentally prepares the way to end with “The Doomed Prince”, which could be the most folk song in this album for its nice rhythm.
“Disputes with My Ba” shows the talent and work taken to reach our ears with such quality. For this, the album has been produced in Israel and has the help of Yossi Sassi (Orphaned Land, Oriental Rock Orchestra), and sound engineer Arie Aranovich (Hammercult, Angra, Orphaned Land) to give the necessary professionalism to Sechem. We hope they have the necessary recognition for their work and, such as the Egyptian culture travel to Spain to influence these artists, their music will be also spread through the folk-metal world.
Tracklist
- In Search of Immortality 06:52
- Mummify Me! 04:25
- Bird in a Cage 04:32
- An Epic Journey to Yam 04:47
- Sanehat 04:38
- Horus & Seth 04:10
- The Shipwrecked Sailor 05:10
- Rusty Nail 04:11
- Waltz of the Three Fates 01:45
- The Doomed Prince 05:48