Sijjeel – Salvation Within Insanity
Sijjeel – Salvation Within Insanity
Comatose Music
Release Date: 03.06.22
Running Time: 33:18
Review by Dark Juan
7/10
Well, now. In a classic case of first world problems, I have sat down to write a review of Sijjeel’s album and my headphones broke. I have had a flounce about it and been royally mocked by Mrs Dark Juan for moaning about something so unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Talking of unimportant matters…
There was a young effeminate gentleman in his early twenties near Dark Juan Terrace this morning, attempting to pull in his car wing mirror so it doesn’t get knocked off. Said young gentleman (who was a VERY slender body type and looks like he enjoys nutritious meals composed mainly of several liquids) took SIX attempts to do this rather simple task. Granted, he had arms and legs like pipe cleaners, but a monkey one third his size could have done it without any major problem. Honest to Satan, the man was wetter than a bank holiday in Mablethorpe and had ACTUALLY WORKED UP A SWEAT as he went back to his friends and partner, complaining about how hard it was. This got me thinking about victim types, and whether this clearly not very physically strong person would be seen as easy meat by a serial killer or an abuser. How would he be able to fight off someone who was going to do something unspeakable to him if he can’t even fold in a fucking car mirror? Still, he was impeccably attired and seemed happy with his partner and probably has a different set of important values to me. So, I wandered off with Hodgson Biological-Warfare and didn’t trouble myself with worrying about it. Then I went to a farmer’s market in Heckmondwike, which was shit so I came home again, ensconced Mrs Dark Juan upon her large sofa with two thirds of the home’s complement of annoying furry bastards and have stuck the latest offering from Sijjeel on the spinny deck of deth – Sijjeel being a Saudi Arabian/ European death metal band.
Now if you know anything about Saudi Arabia, you’ll also know that it is not a very welcoming place for heavy metal, the hardline Wahhabi sect that the country follows claiming that metal is not Islamic. I’d fucking love it if we ended up with some proper Islamic Metal, where the followers of that august religion bid defiance to their more conservative clerics and make their own music to praise Mohammed (peace be upon him) and Allah.
It’s the same fucking problem with all religions, isn’t it? It’s a fucking man in a dress and a silly hat claiming he has the direct word of some (possibly imaginary) sky being and foisting their belief on many others and making them follow him on pain of death/ eternal damnation/ shame. This is why I do not like religion. Why should I be damned to eternal suffering because I refuse to accept their narrative? I don’t want their fucking pity either. I have ABSOLUTELY ZERO problem with people choosing to follow a religion, or dedicating their lives to a religion. That’s their free will and I will respect their choice, even if I don’t agree. I will not insult their religion either, to their faces. I will in my rantings and when I am not directly speaking to them though. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, yes even Satanism – all creeds that require you to stop using your intelligence, that was supposedly given by god. He gives you the intelligence to think, and according to religion will punish you forever if you don’t think what he wants you to think, according to the adherents of these religions and the men in funny hats who wander around waving censers. Fuck THAT for a game of soldiers. What I do have a problem with is unquestioning slaves to religion (the same applies to politics – the apathy of Brits to what is being done to them is truly staggering to behold) and people who will insist that being of their religion is the only way I (or my good deeds) will have any worth or value.
Those people get a middle finger, a loud and disrespectful “Fuck you” and no more of my time. Dark Juan will embrace decency and respect, but not people who tell me not to swear, or wear a t shirt because it upsets them and their god. Shove your god up your arse, you credulous dickhead…
Sorry. Dark Juan rejected religion many years ago as an unprovable truth.
Sijjeel (I didn’t know what it meant, so I did a bit of research. Here is the best bit of translation and information I could find – The word SIJJEEL is borrowed from Farsi, and is defined in Al-Munjid as حجارة كالطين اليابس. The Saudi Arabian “official” translation of the Qur’an actually uses the expression “burnt clay.” It is not clear whether the reference is to:
– clay that has naturally hardened into stone;
– shards of pottery (which is made of clay and hardened by being baked at extremely high temperatures in special kilns); or
– fire-hot stones (possibly used in ancient warfare).
Some commentators even suggested that the expression is not meant to describe the actual objects, but rather their effect on the victims, who felt as if they were being pelted by fire-hot stones. The affliction may have been a viral skin epidemic, for instance) are the band of Hussain Akbar (guitars and drum programming) and they play a rather beguiling bit of brutal, yet technically complex death metal.
Opening with “Isolation Behind Unrealism”, the band set out their store in a remarkably uncompromising fashion. There are no fancy intros, or humorous skits, there is just violence. Pure, unadulterated sonic violence. Of immediate note is the influence of Tool, Necrophagist, Meshuggah and other technical bands – there are some beautifully complex passages throughout the record, but I liked the syncopation throughout the opening song but this is a pure death metal album. Particularly impressive is the icy sharp, clear and absolutely brutal production, which allows the bass through the mix with ease, but maintains clarity and a hawklike, predatory sense of purpose. That purpose is to bludgeon you until you are chunky salsa.
However, I think Sijjeel would benefit from a human drummer. You can immediately tell the drums are sequenced and it takes some of the humanity away from the music. The guitar and bass work are absolutely fucking top drawer though, and the guitar’s tone the proper level of death metal meaty. The gut destroying vocals from Floor Van Kuijk are completely incomprehensible, yet supremely aggressive. The whole band hit you in the belly and keep on hitting you until your torso is a gore filled bag leaking from small rents in the skin. Which, frankly, is what death metal is supposed to do to you. “Mental Paralysis” is a listening experience not unlike being trampled by a herd of vildebeest. With an elephant in the middle of them.
I do have problems with the album though. The sequenced drums I have already described. Sijjeel are considerably better than this album gives them credit for. There is too much reliance on warp speed and blastbeats when the band are capable of far greater feats of musicianship and that’s annoying. Death metal can be just as brutal with more inventive arrangements. Sijjeel themselves demonstrate this on the album opener and then seem to fall back into the death metal event horizon of speed and incomprehensible gutturals, leaving the truly interesting bits of the music until the end of songs when they are looking for a way to end them. That’s a shame because I like those bits best.
I’m actually a bit conflicted, because I really like Sijjeel and their sound is immense and there is considerable promise to them, but I can’t help thinking that this record is a bit… lazy. There’s so much more Sijjeel could be doing and they have the capacity to be able to take death metal forward in a unique and powerful way, instead of the hackneyed reliance on speed and palm muted staccato riffing. “Inflection To Thee Smut” is a prime example – a chopped up, dissonant, intricate riff is just stopped after a few bars on the introduction, and doesn’t come back till the middle eight, and then that’s the last we hear of it. To be fair “Inflection” is my favourite song on the album, where complex riffs and time passages come together in interesting ways although there is still too much reliance on speed.
Less velocity, more virtuosity, please.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System awards Sijjeel 7/10 for a very good, but ultimately unspectacular album that is a gnat’s wing away from greatness.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Isolation Behind Unrealism
02. Inverted Contentment In Salvation
03. The Affliction Of Deteriorating Minds
04. Mental Paralysis
05. Climbing Into The Abyss
06. Departing From Human Nature
07. Indignation Overcame Me
08. Inflection To Thee Smut
LINE-UP:
Floor Van Kuijk – Vocals
Lukas Kaminski – Bass
Hussain Akbar – Guitar/Drum Programming
LINKS:
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