Arkan - Blending Music With A Vision
By: Mike Sloan
Anyone who has listened to Arkan’s masterful new release Salam will probably agree that it’s a strong contender for Album of the Year. The French band’s sophomore effort is a remarkable improvement from debut Hilal, which in and of itself was a stellar release. But Arkan truly raised the ante with Salam, one of the most dynamic and experimental metal albums released in years.
Fusing elements of traditional death metal, Oriental music and Arabic culture along with a vision of harmony and togetherness, Salam shatters all boundaries of extreme music. Blistering.com recently caught up with drummer and founding member Foued Moukid to chat about the album, the vision of the band and what’s to expect in the future.
Blistering.com: First off, congratulations on creating such an impressive album. I was blown away with Salam considering that I have never taken the time to listen to your first album, Hilal.
Moukid: Thank you, I'm happy that you’ve liked Salam. We are very excited by the release of this album, which allows the fans to discover our last achievement. We put a lot of energy into this album and we're proud to be able to show it to others. Each album is like a child: We give birth to it, we breed it and then the day comes when it cuts the apron strings and flies on its own wings.
Blistering.com: While Salam continues with the same sort of musical direction and overall feel of Hilal, it is a much fuller, stronger album. Was that just a natural progression from within the band or was that the desire from before the songs were created?
Moukid: The musical approach and the content [of] Hilal is a compendium of everything we loved, listened to and wanted to say at this time. This album also covers 60 minutes. It's intense. It is a very rich album and we intended to show to everybody, "Hey guys, look at what Arkan was able to do.” However, Salam is not intended to prove anything; it is just the continuation of our musical approach. We no longer want to scream to the world that we exist. We just would like to share our passion for metal music with our audience by adding a touch of musical diversity.
Blistering.com: How long were these new songs ready before you all went into the studio to record them? Were any of them leftover from the Hilal sessions?
Moukid: We began the composition of Salam just after we returned from tour with Orphaned Land, so in June 2010. We entered the studio in November of that year. The titles have constantly evolved. Each song can change until it was definitively recorded. We did not insert non-used title composed during the Hilal sessions, for the simple reason that there was none.
Blistering.com: While Salam is a much more melodic and ethereal-sounding album, it’s much heavier at times than Hilal. Again, was this the intention when creating it or was it just a natural occurrence when creating the songs?
Moukid: The process of composition we used was different for Salam compared with those of Hilal. Hilal is a metal album with oriental music. The purpose of this album was to mix metal music and Middle East music. Our compositions were essentially metal. The appearances of the Oriental parts are separated from the metal parts.
In the case of Salam, it's the other way around. We began to compose Oriental parts. We followed like a thread in the composition and, with this melodic basis, we have created the different atmospheres. The aggressive parts communicate with melodic parts and metal is not an end in itself but a tool of communication. This album is more melodic and a more prominent part was given to Oriental moods and harmonies. We really wanted a mysterious alchemy to be created leaving in questions the Oriental or metal musical aspect of each part.
Blistering.com: The overall sound of Arkan is much different than traditional metal, even compared to the more open and experimental/folk bands in Europe. When you formed the band and starting writing music, did you have the vision in your head already as to what you wanted the music to sound like? Was it a goal to sound different than what has already been produced by countless others?
Moukid: The idea to combine metal and Oriental music in this project goes back a long way and even pre-dates the time when I joined The Old Dead Tree. I have always wanted to combine my cultural origins with the music I am most fond of. Except a small number of bands, Oriental music was not represented in the European metal scene. I thought this project might bring a new breath in trying to mix two very different styles: Oriental music including chaabi, which is the musical style the most popular in Maghreb and a powerful metal with growls and hard riffs.
It is difficult to find good musicians to form a metal band but it’s even more difficult to find great musicians playing both metal and North African music. My inclusion in The Old Dead Tree helped me to build my experience in a professional band and create a social network in this scene. In 2005, Mus and Samir, former members of an Algerian death metal band named Worth, and Florent, a former member of Whisper-X, joined me with the same desire to try something new.
Blistering.com: On Salam, you’ve incorporated a female singer in Sarah Layssac. How did she come into the band and since Hilal had very little in terms of a female presence, was that the idea going forward or did she just happen to fit into what the band was doing this time around?
Moukid: Arkan met Sarah on the occasion of our various gigs. At the time, she was the singer of a metal band called The Outburst. A friendship has developed between us and her vocal qualities as well as her mastery of Arabic language have persuaded us to work with her on Hilal. She immediately agreed to cooperate with us. Having Algerian origins, the idea of using its North African roots in her way to sing has immediately interested her. She adapts quite easily to all kinds of voices from rock to Oriental ones. We very much wanted to work with her and we are extremely pleased with the art we have created together.
Her talent and the fact that she speaks Arabic language enabled constructive and fruitful collaboration. After recording her voice on Hilal, we decided to invite her to our tours with Septicflesh and Orphaned Land to go further in this adventure and collaboration. Everyone who participated in Arkan's projects has an important place in the band history; they helped to build it and Sarah is among them.
Blistering.com:How important is it for you to have lyrics sung in both English and your native tongue?
Moukid: The lyrics of our albums are generally in English in order to ease the understanding of everybody. But it's also important for us to include words in Arabic. It's consistent with our musical approach: to mix Oriental culture with metal. This diversity is a strength; the Arabic language being a rich language. The most part of us have grown during our childhood with Arabic music, so, I think it’s a nice tribute.
Moreover, in Deus Vult we included lyrics Latin and Hebrew. Kobi [Farhi], the singer of Orphaned Land, also sings in Arabic which creates an union between both languages and cultures. Don't forget that any language belongs to anyone who wishes to learn. Symbolically, Deus Vult means "God willing.” In Arabic the term is particularly strong (« Inch Allah ») and I considered that it would be interesting to mix different expressions.
Blistering.com: In my review of Salam on Blistering, I compared the sound and feel to Amorphis’ Tales of the Thousand Lakes’ atmosphere mixed with Nile’s Black Seeds of Vengeance’s ominous darkness and the gothic beauty of Ava Inferi. Do you agree with that and if not, what other bands/album do you feel you resemble?
Moukid: It's true that even if our music incorporates ancestral Oriental sounds, it is intended to be occidental via the metal influences we use. We never thought about the musical direction of our metal parts with terms like “atmospheri,” “dark” or “gothic.” Generally speaking, our only goal was to contrast the Oriental parts by efficient and catchy metal parts. Before everything else, we play the music we like. In Arkan, we all appreciate metal bands like Nile, Nevermore, Meshuggah or Textures. It is logical that such musical sounds are exploited in Salam.
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