According to the calendar hanging on the wall about two feet to the left of my bulbous head, today is Rosh Hashanah. In technical terms, this means today is the first of the high holidays, or Yamin Noraim, celebrated ten days before Yom Kippur and is observed on the first two days of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. Not being at all religious or Jewish, I have no idea what any of that means, but I’ve been told that’s the roundabout way of saying it’s Jewish New Year. Hence, the country of Israel has probably come to a screeching halt the same way the United States seemingly stops and drops everything it’s doing during Thanksgiving week.
But metal never takes a holiday, so I’ve decided to brave the inevitable accusations of political incorrectness (at best) and racism (at worst) – not to mention getting shit for excluding someone’s favorite band and being reminded there are Jews in other parts of the world – and give a nod to a small handful of my favourite Israeli bands on this day when they’re doing…well, I don’t know, but there’s a good chance whatever they’re doing is pissing off somebody’s strict orthodox relative.
NAIL WITHIN (They split up a few years back, but their self-titled album was some ripping melodi-death/thrash before that shit got stale.)
ORPHANED LAND (This collective has done more for relations in the Middle East – well, the hesher populations, anyway – than any politician or “peace treaty” in history has ever managed.)
WHORECORE (They apparently have the best mosh pits in all of Israel.)
RABIES CASTE (One of the sludge-iest sludge bands ever. They are sadly missed.)
DUKATALON (Picking up where Rabies Caste left off, you can check out their Saved By Fear album courtesy of Relapse.)
SHREDHEAD (The global village has made it so that flipped up baseball caps and songs about beer and zombies aren’t just limited to Richmond, VA)
BEERAGE (Simply, I’m big into their name and goofy attitude.)
http://www.myspace.com/beerage
PEOPLE (Physical copies of this funky/jazzy/grinding/death/weirdness are hard as cat shit to find, but well worth it if you do and are able to turn your mind back to 1992.)
