Label : Century Media Records

Review By Tony Cannella

Israel's Orphaned Land have been around since 1991 and have continued to progress since the release of their debut full-length "Sahara" in 1994. Now the band have released their newest output, a unique sounding release titled "The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR" via Century Media. My first impressions upon listening to the new CD is that this is quite an impressive and ambitious undertaking for Orphaned Land. There is a lot to digest on this and a lot of music to go through - 15-songs and 78-minutes to be exact, but it is not only the quantity of the music but the quality is there too.

"The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR" is divided up into three parts or chapters. Part I is titled "Godfrey's Cordial - An ORphan's Life" and covers tracks 1-6. Part II: "Lips Acquire Stains - The WarriOR Awakens" can heard through track 7-12, with Part III: "Barakah - Enlightening The Cimmerian" bringing the story to a close with tracks 13-15. The songs are epic and symphonic in nature with six of the tracks in the 7-8 minute range. There are three distinctive vocal styles featured throughout the CD, you have the clean male vocals and the more growling extreme kind of male vocals as well as the female vocals provided by Shlomit Levi. The songs are well played, produced and features a strong Middle-Eastern folk influence through the CD.

"The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR" is one release that may require repeated listens to fully grasp exactly what is going on here. The band have really put a lot of hard work and dedication into their new release. There is a lot of musical precision that can be found on the new CD from Orphaned Land and it is sure to please fans of the band, both old and new. Quite impressive.

Rating - 83/100

Tracklist :

[Part I: Godfrey's Cordial - An ORphan's Life]

1. Sapari
2. From Broken Vessels
3. Bereft In The Abyss
4. The Path Part 1 - Treading Through Darkness
5. The Path Part 2 - The Pilgrimage To Or Shalem
6. Olat Ha'tamid

[Part II: Lips Acquire Stains - The WarriOR Awakens]

7. The Warrior
8. His Leaf Shall Not Wither
9. Disciples Of The Sacred Oath II
10. New Jerusalem
11. Vayehi Or
12. M I ?

[Part III: Barakah - Enlightening The Cimmerian]

13. Barakah
14. Codeword: Uprising
15. In Thy Never Ending Way (Epilogue)

Line Up :

• Kobi Farhi - Vocals
  
• Yossi Sa'aron (Sassi) - Lead Guitars, Acoustic Guitars, Saz, Bouzouki, Oud
  
• Matti Svatizky - Rhythm Guitars, Acoustic Guitars
  
• Uri Zelcha - Bass, Fretless Bass
• Shlomit Levi - Female Vocals (Session Member)
  
• Avi Diamond - Drums (Session Member)

Links :

Orphaned Land Official MySpace

Orphaned Land Official Site

Please retweet and share this article if you found it interesting