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The main problem with most of the new black metal bands is that they mainly try to follow the formulae that other bands have used in their albums; thus, against their diligent efforts, they hardly seem original. "Dawn Of Martyrdom" cleverly sidesteps this objection by combining the black metal ideology with the local beliefs and conditions in an oriental society in which church burning is not a sacrilege and inverted crosses are not offensive to the majority of people. Nevertheless this society has its own ideological dogmas too. These dogmas are exactly the beliefs that Midgard aims to deconstruct. The sub-title of this demo is "Of Sanctification Of War" and ironically, war is demystified and referred to as a futile bloodshed in "Dawn Of Martyrdom". Lord Zealous in his demo has done his best to show the brutality and insanity of all wars and particularly Iran’s war (with Iraq) and he has been quite successful in doing that. To accomplish this aim, he has integrated different sounds such as the soundtracks of the documentaries of war, and the chants that used to encourage the youth during war to take part in it, and … into his music.
The dark and melancholic mood of this demo is mainly maintained by keyboards (something like Profanum’s albums) and there is a very gloomy melody played by guitars at the end of the second track. At the very end of the same track, the mournful chiming of the bells for the youth who were killed for a dubious cause and falsely sanctified as martyrs, emphasizes the brooding atmosphere of the whole demo. The lyrics of the main track of this demo, "Karbala The Slaughtery", are deliberately written in Persian, to add to its overall oriental aura. In these lyrics war is directly condemned as a disaster that brainwashes the youth, but disguises its vicious intents under the false masks of martyrdom and salvation. Lord Zealous’ effort in opposing the socially accepted beliefs of a non-Christian but highly religious society has resulted in a kind music that is black metal in essence, but can not be categorized under any of the present subgenres of black metal music. Hence his work deserves great credit for its originality in this genre.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Bloody Shores (Intro) |
| 2. Karbala The Slaughtery |
| 3. Summoning Of The War God (Outro) |
: 21.04
| Buy other Midgard albums |
