Unhealable Scars from Entropia …the short description says, melodic doom death metal from Saudi Arabia. Well, it’s been a while since I’ve listened to anything doom-related and those of you who have read my interview with Mohammed from Ostoraton know, that I am currently exploring Saudi metal scene… long story short – I couldn’t pass the opportunity to get to know these Arabian doom metallers (who would, right?)
And after aforementioned Ostoraton and their album Rehla (which we will talk about in its own review) and a few appetizers from other Saudi bands like Wasted Land or Immortal Pain (among others) I am happy to report Riyadh’s sons Entropia doesn’t disappoint.
Unhealed Scars is the EP from 2023 and contains 5 songs, one of those is a previously released single “Born Unknown”. 5 songs in little less than 30 minutes…so basically, one songs every 6 minutes. That absolutely works for me!
The EP opens with “Hopeless”, but hear me out – the song (and the whole EP) is far, far from hopeless! Actually, a total opposite! I very like the opening drum rock beat with a symbiosis with the bassline, just before the song put in a second gear and adds some heaviness!!! Abdullah AlGhamdi’s clean vocal reveals his roots a bit (and nothing wrong with that), with more than adequate growling parts, but the music is interesting – it’s like listening to a doomy Coldplay! I kid you not! And it works!
The second track is titled “Chaos in Silence”, starting with a nice keyboard passage followed with a portion of a honest doom-death metal to boot! Great guitar riffing, great drums (and nice double-bassdrum work) and the vocals also add this kinda devilish (I hope I can use this word here) feeling. As I usually say – if you liked the opener, your love this song as well and your interest in this Saudi band will grow.
Third song takes us right into the middle of this record, and it’s already mentioned second single from 2022, “Born Unknown”. Interestingly, this one presents Entropia in rather black metal genre (again, can I complain? Absolutely not!), only with the harsh vocals. The audio production is different (because of earlier recording), and audiophiles might complain a bit. Personally, I’d say it’s not a bad song, but the previous two set the bar quite high…but it’s a good example of the development of the band, therefore no need to diss the track. I’d probably re-arrange the playlist to play this as a first one…and then it would be a perfect introduction to the band’s progress.
The one before the last track, the song number 4, is the longest song of the EP and bears the title of “No Eternity”. Now we’re getting into a serious doom tunes, folks – the speed is slowing down, and although I could imagine guys could add even more heaviness here, I am also satisfied with their choice of putting more emphasis on melodics. But the track contains everything a listener could possibly want and I could actually listen to it even if it’s twice as long!
“Unhealed Scars”, which lends its name to the EP itself, closes this interesting and pleasant listening experience. Its opening again confirms that Entropia consists of very capable musicians and after a nice doomish intermezzo we’re thrown into the melodic death music…funny thing – one would think Abdullah’s clean vocals wouldn’t work, but they make Entropia’s output so different…
I have also to mention the lyrics are sung in English, so you should not have problems to understand. I wouldn’t mind a doom metal song in Arabic – that could sound interesting and as Ostoraton already proved – metal with Arabian language can be done. But that’s just my irrelevant fantasy here 🙂
Summed up – Unhealed Scars from Entropia is yet another undiscovered gem from Asian metal scene and Saudi Arabia in particular. Go check it out and show some love to these metallers!!!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/official.entropia/
