Style: Thrash metal, progressive metal, doom metal, Anatolian rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Savatage, Iron Maiden, Candlemass, Metal Church, Orphaned Land
Country: Turkey
Release date: 21 September 2001

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I think few people would look to Istanbul for leading progressive metal bands in the region. Despite being the third-most populous country in the Middle East, Turkey’s metal output remains relatively unknown outside of its borders. Given their proximity to the developing oriental metal scene in the 90s, it’s curious that they should be so overlooked, since by all rights, they should just as well have been a major contender in the game. But alas, the metal scene is a fickle one, and reality tends to buck expectations. Nevertheless, Istanbul’s own Pentagram would manage to attain some well-deserved recognition in 2001 with their fourth album, Unspoken. A natural progression from the thrash-heavy days of 1992’s Trail Blazer and 1997’s more melodic, sometimes folky Anatolia, this album presented a more comprehensive songwriting style, combining their signature Turkish sound with a more progressive heavy metal edge and exchanging their war-focused lyrical prose for more philosophical, existential and historical concepts. 

Pentagram’s Unspoken plays with an eclectic style of metal viewed through a distinctly Anatolian lens, featuring traditional instruments like the ney (an end-blown flute) and the zurna (a double-reed instrument), and using characteristic melodic progressions to colour their sound with a rich Eastern Mediterranean/Western Asian flavour. However, to suggest that Unspoken is just another folk metal album would be heavily reductive. Many of the pieces on Unspoken supplement a marked riff-heavy aggression with frequent odd-time feels and dizzying turnarounds, with the guitar work of founding member Hakan Utangaç drawing heavily on thrash metal and doom metal stylings while the operatic singing of vocalist Murat Ilkan soaring overtop lets the band drift vaguely into power metal territory. This seamless blending of genre influences lends a sense of experimentation as Pentagram effortlessly glides between different sounds on the album. 

Unspoken’s distinct Turkish flair can be heard on tracks like “For Those Who Died Alone”, which features the aforementioned zurna, and most notably, “Lions In A Cage”, whose signature Turkish scale riff might be the most iconic Pentagram have written in their career, being the subject of many crowd singalongs and drawing comparison to Iron Maiden’s “Powerslave”. This Anatolian element is integral to the album’s sound, but you’ll find it used most often as recurring thematic motifs, like an exotic flourish on top of some already intricate rhythm playing. As their more thrash metal leanings take front and centre on “Take My Time” and the adrenalized “In Esir Like An Eagle”, the album’s doomy sensibilities come through on tracks like “Pain” and the first half of the album closer, “For Those Who Died Alone”–an eight-minute instrumental atmospheric piece that’s the closest thing Pentagram’s ever come to writing a true epic. 

It’s hard to overstate the regional cultural impact of Unspoken, and of Pentagram overall; this is the album that catapulted them onto the revered stages of Wacken Open Air in 2002, leading them to become the first Western Asian/Middle-Eastern metal band to play the world’s biggest heavy metal festival. As pioneers of Turkish heavy metal, such is their popularity among their countrymen that when I had the opportunity to go see them play in London, England at the Islington Assembly in 2024, the whole night was performed entirely in Turkish. Even the security staff at the door gave directions in Turkish. At one point during the set, as they addressed the audience in between songs, I exchanged glances with the British guy next to me—ostensibly the only other non-Turk in the crowd—as if to say, “are you getting any of this?” He raised his eyebrows and shrugged. I suppose we were just there for the tunes anyhow. 

Unspoken is one half of a duo of albums, as it and successor Bir were recorded together and released independently; but whereas Bir is performed entirely in Turkish–their only completely Turkish album to date–Unspoken was aimed for a worldwide release from the get-go (the band being marketed internationally as Mezarkabul.) Pentagram would take an extended hiatus after the release of Bir in 2002, only releasing two other original albums between then and now–one in 2012 (MMXII) and the latest in 2022 (Makina Elektrika). Now twenty-five years later, Unspoken still presents a unique sound with such clarity and authenticity as to avoid sounding clichéd and dated. The album feels timeless, a regional classic in a growing scene that owes this band a great debt. 

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Recommended tracks: In Esir Like An Eagle, Unspoken, Lions In A Cage
You may also like: Morgana Lefay, Alkera, Acrassicauda, Tad Morose, Wolf

Related links: Official Website | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Sony Music

Pentagram is:
– Gökalp Ergen (vocals)
– Murat İlkan (vocals)
– Ogün Sanlısoy (vocals)
– Tarkan Gözübüyük (bass)
– Demir Demirkan (guitars)
– Hakan Utangaç (guitars)
– Metin Türkcan (guitars)
– Cenk Ünnü (drums)

With guests:
– Ilhan Barutcu (ney)
– Mustafa Sorgun (zurna)
– Burak Gürpınar (additional percussion)
– Erdem Tarabus (keyboards)