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Mabool

Orphaned Land - Mabool Audio CD

A fair review of the Orphaned Land "Mabool" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Orphaned Land reviews here, or go back to the Orphaned Land tabs.

Band: Orphaned Land
Title: Mabool
Rating:

Release Date: 2004-04-06
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Birth of the Three (The Unification) 2: Ocean Land (The Revelation) 3: Kiss of Babylon (The Sins) 4: A'salk 5: Halo Dies (The Wrath of God) 6: Call to Awake (The Quest) 7: Building the Ark 8: Norra el Norra (Entering the Ark) 9: Calm Before the Flood 10: Mabool (The Flood) 11: Storm Still Rages Inside 12: Rainbow (The Resurrection) 13: Evil Urge [Live] 14: Never Ending Way [Live] 15: Mercy [Live] 16: Beloved's Cry [Live] 17: Orphaned's Medley: My Requiem/Seasons Unite/Of Temptation Born/Orphaned

"Hell hath no fury as a God scorned"
Did it happen? That is not important. Mabool, the flood, the really BIG flood. What is important is that it makes a great setting for a concept album. And who better to do it than a group from Israel? There is a little of everything in this release: power/progressive metal, acoustics, growling, a choir, numerous languages, female solos, a lead male vocalist with a good voice and more. All is blended very well, with touches of mideastern sounds, into an impressive work that is very listenable. Israel (the orphaned land) does not come to mind when the subject is metal, but the country has at least one group that deserves major recognition. (Please see my profile for a brief discussion of my rating philosophy. ) .

Now *this* is progressive
Every once in a while, something comes a long that gives you hope for the future of the genre. Big as a metal fan as I am, I still sometimes worry that there isn't much creativity left in the genre. Israeli quintet Orphaned Land's 'Mabool' is one such album that gives you hope. This is definitely the most exciting metal album I've heard in a long time, and probably the finest metal cd from '04. (Beating out first-rate efforts from Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge, Mastodon, Pain of Salvation and others. )

On the Orphaned Land website 'Mabool' is classified as 'Atmospheric Gothic & Oriental Death Metal'. This isn't an terribly apt classification, but this can be forgiven because this album is just damn hard to classify. You just have to fall back on the correct but vague title 'progressive metal'. Here, however, we don't mean 'prog-metal', not some innovation free Dream Theater clone. Make no mistake, songs tend to be lengthy and complicated and the bands displays superior musicianship, but similarities between this and traditional prog-metal end their. I think the comparison to Pain of Salvation is most obvious, though still a bit misleading, meaning that they don't actually sound much like PoS, but they do display a similar aesthetic. Both bands focus on condensing a wide variety of disparate elements into a metal format, while focusing on vocals and melody before flashiness or rhythm guitar work.

Now, I've listened to plenty of brutal death and progressive or avant-garde metal bands in my day, and I do enjoy that kind of thing, but I am, at heart, a traditionalist, preferring that my bands display a of sense of melody, or at least some catchiness . The best bands, of course, display a depth that keeps their music interesting while still containing something that makes the album interesting the first time you listen to it. Too many progressive albums are a purely intellectual experience, for me anyway. They're interesting (sometimes very interesting) to listen to, but not really much fun. Simply put, `Mabool' is a great pleasure to listen to both from an intellectual standpoint and in a more gut-response kinda way. Not many bands can do this, and Orphaned Land does it better than most of the select few who even attempt it. They simply understand song and melody writing, so even if you stripped away the eastern influences and progressive elements they'd still be a good band cause they just know how to write a song.

'Mabool' is a concept album, and it contains no missteps whatsoever. I could easily discuss each track individually, so I'll have to restrain myself. The opener, 'Birth of the Three', is a very representative track, containing pretty much all the major elements of the band: chunky riffing, piercing melodic leads, tasteful keyboards, acoustic and eastern instrumentation and melodies, an unconventional, winding song structure and wildly varied vocals. (Ranging from spoken word to conventional metal singing to death growls to distant moaning to choral vox. ) And these elements aren't necessarily spread about the song, but often piled upon one another, and they somehow manage to fit together beautifully rather than clash. 'Ocean Land' is another first-rate track, with incredibly dense instrumentation both electric and acoustic topped off by more immediately memorable vocals. 'Halo Dies' is fine epic, moving from their thick, melodic wall-of-sound approach to a pure death-thrash movement to a long, involved instrumental section and finally returning to some epic-sounding vocals.

The album moves in a different direction about midway through with 'Building the Ark', a very beautiful acoustic song with competing choirs, male and female, which eventually come together. (I was afraid that Orphaned Land would abandon the metallic elements to often, but they don't, and these occasional sidetrips always pove enjoyable. ) 'Norra El Norra' sees the electric instruments comeback, but it's still got a simpler, chant-like vibe to it. Another very memorably song

Other than two sparse, pretty and vocal-free acoustic pieces all that remains is 'Mabool/The Storm Still Rages Inside', the 16 minute centerpiece of the album. (Yeah, they're two tracks, but there isn't any cutoff between them and they're obviously of a piece. ) This song is perhaps a bit more conventional than most the album, downplaying the eastern sounds somewhat and coming across as more of a standard metal epic. Still, it's a first-rate one, with an extremely lengthy but always intriguing solo, and it comes to an appropriately powerful climax, not just for the song, but for the album as a whole. (Which is, of course, the gorgeous, haunting refrain 'Hear Your Orphan Child', particularly the harmonized extension of the word 'child'. )

I guess I'm done. Honestly, I was a bit skeptical about this album initially. Sometimes people love things simply because they're different, and eventually the spell wears off. Perhaps this is what's happened to me as well, but I doubt it. It's definitely got a certain novelty value to it, but these guys clearly know what they're doing. Can't wait to hear some more of their stuff. .

Godlike.
And to think, it's only a debut! These boys from the Middle East have a promising future indeed. Raging black/death metal, melodic passages filled with acoustic guitars and piano, female vocals, chanting choirs, exotic instruments/percussion, cool lyrics in multiple languages, and overal jaw-dropping compositions all make "Mabool" one of the best metal albums of recent times and beyond. For any fan of metal that goes above and beyond, this album is an absolute must. I am certain that "Sahara" will be incredible as well. .

Very good combination of Arabic music and Metal
Beeing a middle-eastern and a listener of classical and new Arabic songs and music, I realized that Orphaned Land used many classical pieces of Egyptian songwriters and composers, for example the song "Norra el norra" was completely taken from the Egyptian musician "Karem Mahmoud" and the original title of the song is called "Samra ya Samra" The song refers to a brunette woman which the singer fell in love with but Orphaned Land changed the meaning of the song and its language from arabic to hebrew. Orphaned land are one of the bands that created their own original style of music with the combination of Death Metal and Arabic instruments such as Oud, Kanoon, Tabla, Rek and many more instruments. Highly recomended for people that love originality.

Peace to all.

Astounding cultural and religious metal album.
It's hard not to feel just a little apprehensive about letting your workmates know that your favourite band is My Dying Bride, or that Robbie Williams' latest album is crap compared to the latest Behemoth masterpiece. Orphaned Land makes me proud to be a metal fan! With the complete lack of respect that the metal scene in general has to face due to a complete lack of understanding and narrow-mindedness, it can sometimes be difficult to admit that you think Carcass' "Necroticism" album is one of the best things you've ever heard. It's bands like Orphaned Land that release music of such a high quality and with a level of integrity and class that annihilate any doubts I have about my chosen path, and make me feel just a little perturbed that the majority of society are too narrow-minded to ever experience it.

It's been 7 years since the bands last studio album and I'm not completely sure whether this is due to environmental factors (they come from Israel) or whether the band has simply spent the 7 years preparing the album. I wouldn't at all be surprised if the latter turned out to be correct, since "Mabool" (which translates as "flood") is a truly monumental album, pieced together with such care and depth that I can't begin to imagine how much time and effort has gone into it.

After really enjoying "Sahara" back in the early 90s as well as its follow-up a year later, I was always hoping the band would release another studio album. If they did, I expected it would be a fine melodic death album with a major injection of Arabic influence. I expected it would show moments of intimacy and outbursts of powerful emotion and passion. I even expected the intense creativity that makes up this epic, but what I never expected was a religious theme based album that displays a level of musicianship and skilfully crafted pieces of work that has left me speechless. Well. . . almost.

Yes, you heard right. This album tells the story of the flood from the bible. Now, I find it difficult to not let my personal feelings about religion get in the way when I listen to Christian metal, but no-one should let that get in the way of listening to "Mabool". There is no preaching of any sort, this is purely story telling.

There are exquisite female vocals, excellent clean and death metal male vocals, incredible guitar solos, perfectly placed keyboards and samples, acoustic interludes, and crushing riffs. The range of emotions that Orphaned Land integrate to express their biblical story are just astounding and never sound contrived or overwhelming.

I find myself finishing reviews too often lately with "this album is not for everyone", but damn it, this one is! If you have even the slightest interest in heavy music, then there's no excuse not to check this out. It's album of the year and I'm proud to be a metal fan!.

You can see a complete list of all Orphaned Land discography, or go back to the Orphaned Land tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.