Arallu

A black metal band hailing from Israel. They have a very raw black metal sound with gritty vocals. Quite a few of their songs use samples, including the intro track to the album. Released in 2002. In Mesopotamian mythology "Arallu" is the underworld kingdom ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal and the god Nergal where the dead are judged. Arallu was created as the solo project of Moti "Butchered" Daniel, a bass guitarist who has performed live with Melechesh. The debut album The War on the Wailing Wall arrived in 2001 and featured "a drum machine programmed to ludicrous speed". In 2002, Arallu released their "iconoclastic" second album Satanic War in Jerusalem. Nir Nakav from the band Salem was responsible for the drums and the traditional Goblet drum while Daniel performed on all other instruments and vocals. The album featured a cover version of Slayer's "Evil Has No Boundaries". Daniel expanded the band's line-up after the release of this album and a DVD Visual Chaos Invasion was released in the following year. In September 2003, Daniel's brother was kidnapped and held to ransom by guerrillas from the Colombian organisation Ejército de Liberación Nacional. Daniel was successful in negotiating for his brother's release. The year 2005 saw the release of Arallu's third album The Demon From The Ancient World with guest performers from various Israeli acts including Zeev Tananboim of Salem. Daniel returned the favor with a guest performance on Salem's chart-topping Strings Attached album. In September 2007, Arallu opened for Mayhem's concert in Tel Aviv. The footage from the performance was filmed and is scheduled for release in 2008 as the band's second DVD. Their fourth album Desert Battles - Descending to the Sands was released in 2009.