Review: Belnejoum – Dark Tales of Zarathustra

Review by Jeger

Belnejoum – Dark Tales of Zarathustra

Record Label: Antiq Records

Year: 2025

Rating: 9.5/10

Antiq has always been known by scrutinizing connoisseurs to be a record label of equally selective taste. To truly understand Black Metal, one must understand that Black Metal is much more than a mere genre of music like Thrash, Heavy Metal and Death Metal. It is, for many of us, a way of life. But beyond that even one must be able to appreciate the value of the music as a form of art that astonishes on both visual and sonic levels. To take in the beauty of folk, symphony and classical as you indulge the blackest craft: to behold the beautiful cover art, to know the value of the musicians involved and to be very pleased about the fact that if you happen to be reading this, you more than likely have exquisite taste in music.

Antiq has made an unprecedented acquisition in Belnejoum – a US-based Symphonic Black Metal project masterminded by Mohamed Baligh “Aswad” with the likes of George Kollias (Nile), Francesco Ferrini and Fabio Bartoletti (Fleshgod Apocalypse) and Rich Grey (Annihilator) at his side contributing to guitars, percussion and symphonic arrangements. I usually despise Symphonic Black Metal unless it’s from the ’90s, but this is a rare treat. On April 4, Belnejoum unveils their debut LP, “Dark Tales of Zarathustra”, via Antiq.

Belnejoum

Right out the gate, following an epic intro, we have Kollias doing his thing, which is to just obliterate everything you might have known about extreme metal percussion. The versatility, the organic feel to how he’s able to transition stylistically from Death over to Black Metal and just the airtight nature of everything the man does behind the kit are all just divine during the opening minute of “Prophet of Desolation”. The whole thing just towering over you so mightily and dropping payloads of symphonic artillery as it all comes together from a hundred different angles and from what feels like a hundred different instruments as well. Tamara Jokic makes a most impactful contribution to the recording as a Melisma singer. Her elegant touch during this track and others like the stunning “Elegie” provide a most artfully agreeable experience; something bordering on cinema as images of great forests sovereign to the wolf and its lunar howl upon this – the night of the hunt are evoked.

Conceptually, “Dark Tales of Zarathustra” tells the Zarathustrian tale of the evil/corruption of its namesake religious figure and his eventual submission to Ahriman. These sorts of Middle Eastern themes, particularly themes related to Jewish mysticism and ancient Sumeria, have become increasingly popular over the years, but this is the first time I’ve experienced an album of this consort set to symphony and such commanding traditional-to-heavy-metal instrument contributions. This is golden… Symphonic BM’ers would be salivating over this thing right now if they could only hear it. It’s beautiful because the symphonic elements don’t dominate the music, nor do they sound too incredibly modern. There’s a nice classical touch here, particularly as other phases are stripped away; exposing the earthy tone of the violins and cellos. “In their Darkest Aquarium” – edge of your seat intense and operatic – flutes to enrich the experience this time around. Choirs permeate the background as well, but everything is proportioned out so nicely that there’s no chance of it becoming gaudy or intolerably overbearing.

Some of this stuff is highly advanced; musicianship that supersedes that of even some of the world’s most talented Black Metal artists. Some of it will transport you back to the ancient days of desert night mystification. It will all mesmerize. A masterpiece! An opus… Not to be missed. This is why we listen to Black Metal. And as the piano keys tinker away their delicate song and as the violins weep the night, also does the suspense rise and do the keyboard passages soar. Got any popcorn and 3D glasses? Better yet, a glass of brandy and your record player by the warmth of the hearth light, for this is a journey. The first pleasurable Symphonic Black Metal experience I’ve had in years. Bravo!