Al-Azif was formed in 2011 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan by 3 musicians with different musical experiences.
Drummer Sukhrob Nabiev is a Beatles man, he used to sing classical rock-songs (Free, The Beatles, Rolling stones) in local pubs, he also plays guitar & bass. He started to play drums in 2011 because Al-Azif needed a drummer.
Bass player Oleg Tanin was in a female-fronted Punk / Hardcore band “Yazva”. Because that band split up he joined Al-Azif. His impressed Jaco Pastorius & Alex Webster with his bass playing.
Guitarist Jack Rock (a.k.a Lucifer) – the main creator of music & lyrics of the band. He has experience in playing Blues, Rock, Punk, Black metal and more. So Al-Azif became his experimental platform for new decisions in “scary smart” music.
The band played a lot of live gigs during 2011-2012. In 2012 they released a demo “Bezdna” by themselves limited to 50 copies. In October 2012 they played a show “Oriental metal” with 2 local session-percussionists.
Influenced by many styles from the blues of the 1930’s to Thrash, Black and Death Metal bands such as Deicide, Venom, Slayer and also local oriental music, they led Tajik metal to a new level and have became legends of the Tajik metal scene.
Unfortunately in February 2013 Suhkrob Nabiev left the band and so they split up, because there was no drummer of the same level in the whole country. But in March 2014 Jack & Oleg recorded 1 cover song with a drum machine and went to release it as a single. So let’s see. Maybe this is a start of a new chapter for Al-Azif.
supported by 4 fans who also own “Tajikistan - Al-Azif - Bezdna (Abyss)”
Californian quartet defining themselves as Sci-Fi black metal, maybe due to cosmic and interstellar topics, sounding like blackened death metal too ("The Maw"). It's a well-balanced melodic black metal album, with some fast-paced tracks and nice rhythmic transitions reminding me of Swiss band Celtic Frost (e.g. Terminal Odyssey). In other words not overly dominated by drum speed and also not sounding as extreme or as raw as some BM can be. sachavonkarl74
supported by 4 fans who also own “Tajikistan - Al-Azif - Bezdna (Abyss)”
I think I discovered this one (well, Saor in general) in 2022. In addition to an embalming soundtrack go-to, it's definitely a cold-weather favorite. skyturtles
supported by 4 fans who also own “Tajikistan - Al-Azif - Bezdna (Abyss)”
Iranian Depressive Black Metal. This is a one man band whose other project is Ekove Efrits. This is very dark but does not even remotely descend into any kind of dullness along the way. Truly fantastic music! Highly recommended!!! bmurator