THE NEVER ENDING WAY OF ORWARRIOR

This is an album that is very much like a musical onion - upon first listen it may seem simple, but every listen after that you peel back a layer and find complexity. Orphaned Land creates an incredibly unique musical experience, melding together Progressive, Metal, Death Metal, and traditional Arabic and Jewish soundscapes to produce a style of music that many of their fans have dubbed "Oriental Metal". To add to this blending of styles, throughout the album they employ the use of many traditional instruments (the Oud? The Saz? The Bouzouki?),songs contain lyrics written in multiple languages, a Yemenite folk singer adds guest vocals, and the band puts their spin on centuries old traditional Jewish and Yemenite folk songs. The lyrics even borrow concepts from Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. This is an extraordinary album, and I can't see any way to give it anything but 5 stars.