Canadian prog-metal band, Derev are back with a new single, “Turab”, which is the lastest to land alongside their newest EP, Leap of Faith.
Featuring guest vocalist Adel Saflou, the five-minute hard-hitter includes the Derev members Armando Bablanian, Michel Karakach, and Liam Horrigan, and picks up right where the album’s previous single, “Futile,” left off…
Think: intense guitar riffs, chest-pounding drum beats, and mesmerizingly groovy time changes — all backed by the track’s thought-provoking nature sparked by the trio’s poetic and harrowing lyrical efforts.
Meaning ‘earth’ in Arabic, “Turab” was written with the purpose of “questioning things that are culturally presumed as absolute truths,” the band says, using the culture of war as an example to question the “honour” of sacrificing oneself for “the land.”
“Is it really an honour,” the query, “or is it just another presumed truth we were raised to believe, and never question?”
Sonically, “Turab” is arguably the heaviest track on the entire six-track EP. Perfectly complementing the dense nature of the lyrics, it opens with an urgent, palm-muted guitar melody and intermittent, rapid-paced drum fills, before breaking out into the pummeling, Tool-esque riffage that drives this anthem.
The band’s intent was to blend the heaviness of metal with the atmospheric feel and rhythms of old-school prog-rock, all while experimenting with Middle Eastern guitar scales derived from the members’ respective origins — Bablanian is from Kuwait, and Karakach is from Syria.
Check out the video for “Turab” below, and stay up to date with Derev via their sociasl.