Schaliach

Schaliach was a Christian metal band formed by Peter Dalbakk and Ole Børud from Hamar, Norway. Dalbakk served as the band's vocalist, while Børud handled all the instrumentation.[1] The band released one studio album, Sonrise, in 1996 through Petroleum Records. Three songs from that recording were then featured on the Rowe Productions compilation album Northern Lights: Norwegian Metal Compilation, which was also released in 1996.[2] The band also contributed the song "Purple Filter" to the compilation album In the Shadow of Death: A Scandinavian Extreme Music Compilation, released in 2000 through Endtime Productions.[3][4] Dalbakk was also part of the unblack metal band Vardøger, and Børud had joined the progressive death metal band Extol and also started a career as a solo artist. The two artists would years later, in 2015, team up again to found the progressive death metal project Fleshkiller.[5] The genre performed by the band was described variously as doom metal,[1][6] death metal,[7][8][9] death-doom,[10] gothic metal,[9] black metal,[9] melodic death metal,[8] and progressive metal.[11] Børud's guitar work was strongly influenced by classical music, with one reviewer describing it as a "metal symphony."[1][10] Its lyrics were explicitly Christian, drawing heavily from the Bible and emphasizing the love of God for all humans.[1] Schaliach has been compared to the output from Extol,[7][8] Amorphis,[8][10] Metallica,[1][10] Solitude Aeturnus,[11] Dream Theater,[11] Threshold,[11] Shadow Gallery,[11] and Teramaze.[11] Most critics were favorable to Sonrise — it was rated highly by HM writer Matt Morrow and by two reviewers from the Christian website The Phantom Tollbooth,[7][10][11] and described by the webzine Chronicles of Chaos as "excellent".[6] However, Rock Hard was less favorable and considered Schaliach boring.[9]