Do you like guitars? Do you like a lot of guitars? Do you like lots of guitars to the point where you think the first Annihilator albums could have had even more guitars in them? Then you should listen to Noor.
Unknown until yesterday, the Canadians have spread among metal fans faster than the fire fronts that randomly appear in our country whenever we have more than eight Beaufort winds. The Quebec band went BAM and independently released their debut album this past December, leaving us with our mouths hanging open. They even released a single, “Les Canadiens Sont La”, a few months ago.
So “Mother’s” is an album with a lot of guitars. I’m not exaggerating here, even the opening title track which lasts all of 9 minutes, talk about cheeky, comes in with guitars and it’s a couple of minutes before we hear Thomas Karam’s voice. Musically speaking I would say that we are dealing with a mixture of US power, speed and modern metal as presented to us by Trivium, I don’t want booing!
Complex compositions with a lot of variations that don’t get tired though. This is an achievement. Some people might even stick the label of progressive on the band’s music although my position regarding what is progressive is quite different from most people.
In the 55 minutes of the album, we hear a lot of interesting ideas. The sound of the guitar is thick and almost old-fashioned, as we like it. I would be doing the rhythm section an injustice if I didn’t mention the great work that has been done on it but let’s not kid ourselves, the album is a wet dream for the six-string goddess lover.
Compositions like the title track, “Hills Of Qartaba” and the awesome “Roseblood” that closes the album don’t pop in our ears every day. For a while now, Noor’s debut album has been roundly sitting in my playlist and it won’t budge. All you believers come on down!
