Middle East my love, the most controversial place on earth in the 21th century, where cultures collide into a huge mess, that could create chaos, or diversity that no one ever seen in Europe, in most countries in the middle east metal music is banned and if even if not, metal will be considered as a "satanic" music and will never gain succsses in the mainstream music industry, one of these bands are Orphaned Land, the most famous metal band to come out of israel, and one of the only artists in all of israel to have a huge fanbase in muslim countries.
Orphaned Land formed in the early 90's by Kobi Farhi (Vocals), Yossi Saharon (Guitars and some folk instruments), Matti Svatizky (Guitars), Uri Zilha (Bass) and Sami Bachar (Drums), and quickly gained succsses within the israeli metal scene that wasn't big at that time, releasing their debut "Sahara" in 1994, which was really awesome (my opinion plays a role here) while still being teenagers, after 2 years came the Album El Norra Alila which im going to write about, and after 8 years of wandering and not doing nothing, OL released their 3rd album "Mabool" which was a concept album the Noah's Ark and the flood story with their own personal twist about peace between the 3 big religions, and the album is considered as their best by far, and in early 2010, OL relaeased their 4th album "The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR" that is really great but takes it time to like the songs on it.
i'll start this review by saying that there will be comparisons to Sahara, and off we go.
First of all, the lyrics are one of the best i heard and read, they talk about the relationship between god and man, about the need to lean on some kind of a deity, the only way for me to relate to religion is by this album, nothing does it better than this for me.
The guitars are just tight, the riffs flow onto another riff creating a rich sound, Yossi and Matti work in layers rather than playing both the same thing, some doom-death riffs remained from Sahara, some more melodic parts and less metallic, creating the what's called "Oriental Metal" and pioneering a genre within the Folk Metal scene.
Kobi's vocals improved in the two years between the two albums, while in Sahara the vocals were mostly growls with some occasional chants and some narrating, he changed his style, singing in a middle eastern style and he sings in sort of pain and despair, which brings more interesting sounds into the the mix and the growls are more high pitched than in Sahara, not a single flaw in it.
In the rhytm section the drums are perfectly fit to the music and does the job pretty well, but the from the bass i would expect more as a fellow bassist, Uri's parts are not bad, but it would be cooler if he would had more ideas into the album.
the folk music fits to every riff, seems like the band knew where to put those instruments to make this sort of feeling, chants like in the end of "Thee By The Father I Pray" gives an epic though OL's music cannot be considered as epic like its folk metal fellows, and especially the song "Shir Hama'alot" which gives me as a born and raised jew, feelings about the holy city of Jerusalem, but the only thing that was down is the production quality, im used to stuff like Bathory but i think clearer sound will give the band a better way to understand the riffs and the musical ideas.
this album ended up as one of my favorite albums, much more than Mabool, or Sahara, i connect to my spirit as much as Agalloch can change my mood with the help of this masterpiece, and i think this album is way underrated in comparison to their others, and in live shows, the only interesting songs i want them to play are songs from El Norra Alila.
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