It’s been over a decade since I last heard Egypt’s Scarab, on their second album, Serpents of the Nile, back in 2015. They released an album in 2020, which I own, called Martyrs of the Storm, and it slays, but I never got around to reviewing it.
But not much has changed other than a new guitarist. The style is still Middle Eastern-themed death metal, which isn’t quite as brutal as their more famous Egyptian-themed, South Carolina brethren Nile, but a more tempered, but beefy melodic death metal that has more in common with Hypocrisy, mid-era Behemoth (Zos Kia Kultus, Demigod, etc.), or Morbid Angel’s more churning moments, though certainly some Nile on the more intense moments.
The 4 song, 27-minute effort seems to continue from what I heard on Serpents of the Nile. Opener “Vow of the Sphinx” has a nice beefy grooving main riff with a smooth Arabic clean chorus, while “Hands from the Sun (Amon)” starts as a slower, moody number before delivering a pretty epic, orchestration-filled number.
The EPs standout is “Epistle of Secrets”, which melds some sweeping orchestration, some black metal, some choppy tech death, and burly death metal into a swirling sandstorm of a number before the EP is rounded out by “Monarch of Violence”, the EPs most savage but still epic and Middle Eastern tinged number.
A damn solid EP from a very underrated act, and at almost 30 minutes to boot, is good bang for your buck.
