THE NEVER ENDING WAY OF ORWARRIOR

When I heard the third Orphaned Land's album, "Mabool - The Story Of The Three Sons Of Seven", in 2004, I was sure I was faced with a different band. The fuse of middle eastern musical influences with progressive and death metal worked perfectly and I can say that it was one of the most listened albums at the time. But although I found the band above average in creativity, producing a very original and captivating music, I thought it was almost impossible the band be able to overcome its third album. Then, six years after the launch of this album, I can say that they were able to overcome it. I say this based on two fundamental aspects. The first, and foremost one, is that although the band has kept its characteristics, they are much more progressive in this album. The second aspect is that there are much more intricated and very well worked instrumental passages, what caught my attention enough. If I have something to complain about the album, it is the lack of heaviness in some passages. But nothing that damages the hearing of this wonderful work. "Sapari" opens the album in a masterly way and shows the entire power of the band and great Shlomit Levi's vocals. There are great ballads and interludes based on folk music like "Bereft In The Abyss", "His Leaf Shall Not Wither" and "Vayehi Or" or more rock inspired like "M I ?". But it is in "From Broken Vessels" that all the band's creativity comes up. A mix of death metal elements, progressive and folk music are distributed in seven and a half minutes of music, with excellent and intricate instrumental passages, clean and guttural vocals, heavy riffs interspersed with acoustic passages, and good keyboard's layers. With the same assumption, with more or less keyboard presence, I can cite songs like "The Path Part 1: Treading Through Darkness", "The Path Part 2: The Pilgrimage To Or Shalem", "Disciples Of The Sacred Oath II" and "Barakah". The song "The Warrior" is more epic and sounds much more dark and obscure, while "New Jerusalen" is totally folk inspired. Summary, all the songs make sense in the context of the album and I couldn't give it less than 5 stars.