The Kordz - Beauty & The East

4.0

0.0 (0)

Beirut-based band The Kordz offer up a massive sounding album, Beauty & The East, pushing the boundaries of hard rock and Arabic-musical structures to create a unique offering.

From the opening atmospheric track Coma Nation to its follow-up Deeper In, the intentions of this album are clear - create a unique and diverse rock album, built around traditional Arabic-musical structures.  Beauty & The East was produced by Ulrich Wild (Deftones, Breaking Benjamin, Seether) and has the very talented Jeff Burrows (drummer for Canadian band The Tea Party) back them up on percussion, providing the perfect base for Nadim Sioufi (Guitars) and Mazen Siblini (Keyboards) to accompany Moe Hamzeh's excellent vocals.

From the strings and traditional-sounding structures of the title track, through to the riffs matching up with beating percussion and Arabesque string swirls on Last Call and Insomnia Kid this is a well considered, and clearly well put together album. The heartfelt vocal delivery by Hamzeh on Save Us is also a highlight on an album that has a lot to listen to, coming in at 16 tracks.

Other highlights, Get Behind, Don't You Wait and The End are all standouts on this album that clearly has had a lot of work to deliver this impressive collection. The soft-but-rising crescendo of The Garden is another highlight.

Overally, we don't often, probably since Burrows' The Tea Party, hear traditional Arabic music and structures blended so well with heavy, well produced, rock music. If anything, this record proves that this region can produce unique, heavy and good music that is unique and for this The Kordz should be applauded.

Editor review

Leave a comment