Orphaned Land: Mabool: The Story of the Three Sons of Seven

September 27, 2008 · Posted in Orphaned Land · Comment

Orphaned Land Mabool: The Sons of Three of Seven

Few can evoke the array of emotion that Orphaned Land do, and even fewer do it as well and consistently as these guys do. The third offering delivers a powerful and diverse performance that has no equal in taking you on a journey from the beautiful to the gutteral brutality and everything in between. Mabool: The Story of the Three Sons of Seven is a concept album derived from the biblical telling of the great flood. The album begins with Birth of the Three (The Unification) which sets up the three sent to warn the world of their impending destruction. Each based from the worlds three major monothiestic religions, The snake, known as magic, for Judaism, The eagle, known as strength for Isalm, and the Lion it’s wisdom unmatched, the song proceeds to place each of these sons into their roles to be later fulfilled in the remainder of the story. Vocalist Kobi Farhi delivers a powerful and well delivered performance switching effortlessly from melodic singing to a crushing growl, timed perfectly. The next track takes us deeper into the vision the three are sent to deliver to their respective peoples and brings us chilling visions of the impending apocalypse soon coming. Ocean Land (The Revelation) definetly a polished track designed for promotion, this does little to downplay the flow of the album, again a well balanced song mixing clean melodic vocals, with the heavier growls, and thus we begin to taste the Middle Eastern influence more with this track. The album progresses deeper into the tale with The Kiss of Babylon (The Sins) a brooding track that introduces as to ourselves, ignorant to the please of the three. This track introduces the beautiful Shlomit Levi sharing a chant with singer Kobi Fahri over a perfectly executed metal riff that sets free the emotion a curious contrast of the brutal and heavy sound with the beautiful voice of Shlomit is signature to everything Orphaned Land has come to be known. This track fades out into a segue into the beautiful A’salk sung entirely by Shlomit Levi, as the second half she continues backed by a very Middle Eastern tune. This song is sung as a Yemenite lamentation and fits well here as it segues into Halo Dies (The Wrath of God) where vocalist Kobi Fahri introduces the song with a brooding statement, and, what has to be the heaviest song on the album begins the story progresses as the three’s warnings become more straight to the point warning of destruction at the hands of God, unless they repent immediately and this is followed into the next track A Call to Awake (The Quest). This track echoes of early Dream Theater and brings end to the warning to the people, as God see’s pure wickedness on the Earth and makes his plan to destroy the earth, but wait, there be one that remains faithful, and this takes us into the next track Building the Ark which is a masterpiece of Eastern melodies and almost gregorian vocal harmonies. Sung primarily in Latin, this track is one of the mellow tracks on the album, showcasing the guitarists grasp of melody and diverse influence. Norra el Norra (Entering the Ark) starts off with a brisk acoustic guitar with more eastern language singing, jumps into some good old fashioned progressive metal interrupted by another break by the beautiful voice of Shlomit Levi sung over a Bouzouki playing a traditional Mediterranean tune. The song continues with similar fashion until it segues into The Calm Before The Flood, an acoustic instrumental that begins peacefully, as a soundtrack to the storm as it slowly rolls in. The louder the winds become, the guitar switched from acoustic to a clean softly played electric guitar mirroring the same as the acoustic accompanied by a String Ensemble and interspersed with a lamenting female vocal. As the guitars fade the rain starts to fall, and falls with more intensity until the initial thunderclap segues into Mabool (The Flood) which will culminate together with everything we’ve been given thus far, from the String Ensemble to Progressive Metal to the pleasant vocals to the angry growls and everything. This song takes up the first half of the flood itself, the wrath of God the destruction of evil on the earth and follows into the second part of the flood saga The Storm Still Rages Inside both of these songs really are the same musically and act as a perfect climax to this album and it’s story, it’s music, it’s personnel and it’s spirit. The three as they await their final destruction pray to God to watch over the Ark, and proclaim the rage, the evil still rages within the hearts of mankind and always will. The final offering of this album, Rainbow (The Resurrection) is a short instrumental with soundscapes of calm waves washing upon a shore line signifying a new covenent with man, and a beautiful peace that, though for a short time, exists between God and his greatest creation.

Overall I was blown away by the sheer content and delivery of the songs on this album. The end of The Kiss of Babylon and A’salk evoke deep emotion and the songs emit a power rarely found in music of any genre. This is a Progressive music masterpiece in my opinion and is a must for anyone looking for something with a different flavor that cuts no corners in anyway.

My Rating: