For those who may be unaware of Misantrof ANTIRecords, it’s a nonprofit organization headed by Daniel Vrangsinn of Carpathian Forest that among other things distributes music for free download, allowing the artists to keep all rights to their own music. Misantrof’s latest release is Oriental Flavors, a free compilation of songs by 19 metal bands from countries across the Middle East. The comp was assembled in collaboration with Middle Eastern Mayhem and Mohareb Records, and it’s also available from Misantrof as a limited 2-CD set for fans who prefer a physical format.

Making extreme metal and getting it noticed is a challenge almost everywhere, but as Vrangsinn observes in his introduction to Oriental Flavors, doing that in certain parts of the Islamic world can be downright dangerous to the welfare of the bands. But as this comp demonstrates, metal lives and grows in even the most inhospitable places.

The music is described by Misantrof as a mix of black metal, death metal, thrash, “and other kinds of lovely extreme metal from extreme people, for extreme people!” Of the bands on the comp, I was previously familiar with only one — Tunisia’s Barzakh, who were included in a series on North African metal that I wrote almost four years ago (here).

I only discovered the existence of Oriental Flavors this morning (it has just been released), so I haven’t had a chance to listen to all of it yet. But I have taken the liberty of uploading three tracks to our Soundcloud so I can stream them for you here, as a sample. Continue reading »