MORE MERCH REPRINTS + NEW PATCHES!!!

Hey!

We just printed a bunch of new merch the other day, here are some photos of it--in case you haven't seen them on our Tumblr, Facebook, etc.. If you want any merch, please get in contact with us at althawrapunk@gmail.com. Shirts are 12 dollars (postage paid) and patches are $1, but if you want a bunch of stuff, we'll work out a special package price. We'll also be putting these up in the store section of this site, when we get some better photos, and put some stuff up on Youtube of us printing it all....

-Marwan

Al-Thawra live bootleg w/ our new singer, Sahar

We just randomly found a torrent online somewhere of our last show at the Empty Bottle. The entire set was bootlegged, complete with photos. Naturally, we found this to be pretty awesome, and we thought since new material got recorded for the first time, it would be a perfect opportunity to introduce a new song and our new/old singer, Sahar.

Sahar was one of the earliest Al-Thawra members, way back in 2007, when she was still a wee teenager. It's good to have her back, and she'll definitely add some new texture to new recordings.

The song is called, "Psalm of the Sniper." Hopefully, we'll be committing this plus another few new tracks to some kind of recorded format within the next few months.  Anyway, the content of this song hits close to my heart, both in a personal and political way. As blood is spilling on the streets of Daraa and Homs, people are forced to quell the voices of their neighbors. I shouldn't say too much now, but when this song is officially released, be prepared for some tear-jerking poetry.

If you want the full bootleg, feel free to e-mail us for the link. Without further ado, here are some more photos from the bootleg and the new track....

Enjoy.

-Marwan

Al-Thawra - Psalm of the Sniper (live at Empty Bottle 05-18-2011) MP3 

CLICK HERE

Al-Thawra -- "Edifice" review from Maximum Rocknroll #335

Hey!

Maximum Rocknroll did a review of our latest album, "Edifice," released on Subaltern Records in Europe and Najdiyya and Shaman Records in the US. There's some praise, some criticism, but overall, it's one of the most thorough reviews of our music for what it is. Enjoy and keep in touch!

-Marwan


HERE IT IS:

This is experimental crust punk, people. And I mean experimental. There are eleven extremely atmospheric songs here that take you into a place where heavy-as-shit crust and the Middle East meet. I really appreciate this and I think anyone that is a fan of bands like NEUROSIS pushing the boundaries of this genre would be interested. AL-THAWRA could share a stage with NEUROSIS, FALL OF EFRAFA or even GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR and noise outfit MUSLIMGAUZE. The sampling and sound quality give these songs almost an industrial edge, and there is a lot of Middle Eastern percussion and note progressions. Some songs are better than others and luckily the woman that used to sing for them, Sahar, will be on the next recording, which will break up some of the droning tones. This band has been around for some time with Marwan Kamel, of Syrian decent, at the helm. Their bass player, Mario Salazar, is Mexican. I mention this because this is a band where personal experience and ethnicity play a large part in the writing of music and lyrics, and it shows... Personally, it makes me very happy to se that this project is being realized. This isn't for everyone. There are definitely some new rock and industrial moments that I can't really align with and sometimes the production is a little too slick. Overall, I would suggest not to discount this album because there are some amazing moments and these guys definitely have a sound--a direction and a grasp on a type of music that here in the West is still somewhat of a mystery, if not, embarrassingly, a novelty. Lyrics are in Spanish, English, and Arabic (one being a translated poem originally in Persian). Well done, guys. Very interesting.