This band hails from Iran that cannot be found in the traditional Metal band countries list. I don't allege that I know every Metal band in the world (I wiss though) but this is my first encounter with the Persian Metal scene. So, ANGBAND managed to draw my attention and interest due to their ancestry since it is really tough to make music with all the problems surrounding this historic country. Ok, I will not get into politics because Metal is the main subject here so lets see what ANGBAND can bring to us.

Their biography is really short since it starts in 2004 when the guitarist Mahyar Dean decided to leave aside his work as a writer and form a Metal band. Actually, Mahyar is already known from his two books about Schuldiner's DEATH and TESTAMENT.
"Incarnation Of Truth" kicks in with a fast staccato tempo that clearly looks towards the ICED EARTH direction especially of the "Burnt Offerings" era. The underlying Thrash layer joins the melodic guitar riffs and together are wrapped into a solid dark atmosphere. Ashkan Yazdani's vocal influences lie between Matt Barlow's timbre (again during his darkest era of "Burnt Offerings") and Warrel Dane's aggression in the higher pitches. The compositions have more to offer to everyone who is patient to add a few more CD spins and overlook the sound production weaknesses that pop out when things get complicated. These problems can be excused since the album was recorded prior to the signing with Pure Steel Records and was obviously self financed.

In Flaming Sight we find a nice galloping rythm through a Thrash profile and some melodic breaks that add more points towards music diversity. What I really like with ANGBAND is the 80s backbone present in their music; bands in the vein of HEATHEN or BLITZGRIEG were coming to my mind when I was trying to determine ANGBAND's musical background. The fast break in "Look Into The Abyss" is a perfect example of my previous saying making this track my personal favorite.

The band has been obviously working hard to escape from the limited artistic boundaries of their troubled country producing a debut album that reveals some strong composing potentials. Personally, I would love to see in the band's next step the intention to take a step further from the ICED EARTH influences and work more on their own sound as heard in the last track "The King's Command" with the very nice guitar leads and fills. So, take a minute and visit ANGBAND's MySpace page and support the underground and our Iranian Metal brothers.