ORPHANED LAND – The Never Ending Way of ORWarriOR

It seemed that Orphaned Land has been taking their time to record an album, as it was during the recording of their past records as El Norra Alila and the rising flash of Mabool, yet it also seemed that this period of time to work/record their albums turned out to be a worthwhile deal. The Never Ending Way Of ORWarriOR came six years after Mabool, and with this new jewel, Orphaned Land are looking better than ever.

Their music is just WOW!! These guys have been, with their Extreme Folk Metal imagery and sole dedication to uplifting their abilities to excellence, perfecting themselves every passing year and the results, as you will hear, were marvelous. The Israelis, who were signed for years in the deep roster of the giant label of Century Media, proved why they are light years beyond their local Metal scene and beyond many acts of the world.

The ORWarriOR, from Hebrew – the Warrior Of Light (religiously oriented), is the symbol to the notorious battle between light and darkness – a pretty well known story to say the least. Nevertheless, through the eyes of the band’s writer, narrator and artistic vocalist, Kobi Farhi, this everlasting battle and the journey of the ORWarriOR are more than just parts of an epos of a fight, it’s a sort of journey and a battle for the inner self of each human being, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim oriented. On the whole, the songs and their creators delivered a rather obvious message: There should not be anything standing in between peace between religions. The proof is shown in the image of several delivered narrations in English (maybe even Latin), Hebrew and Arabic to express that a unity can be achieved. These types of messages, as done in the past, were the reason that made Orphaned Land to be the connecting mechanism between Metalheads and other people all over the world. Besides being a top Metal group, they are more than just music and their texts and preaching are invaluable.

Storming back to the Metal, Orphaned Land will not surprise you if you already know their stuff and style of play. Their music has it all – complexity, melodies, great peak moments of top notch solos followed by true emotion of their performers. Then there’s the acoustics of all kinds made with finesse and the crown jewels, as add-ons to their music, played by the various folkish instruments that shade the music with their magic. Those qualities and memorizers of Orphaned Land have not changed for a bit since their earlier albums, with their new thing they continued to be who they were and that is prime Metal artists with almost 20 years of experience.

Steven Wilson, leader of Porcupine Tree, made a good job on producing this band and making sure that with a high quality of a material came a high form of sound production. The Never Ending Way Of ORWarriOR brought over a good connection between Wilson (also provided keyboards for the album) and the band, with hope that they will keep on joining forces for the next releases.

Highlights: The ORWarriOR is a full story, in which each track of it is sacred and important. You cannot just leave any of those behind. Listen to them all and enjoy!!