MABOOL - THE STORY OF THE THREE SONS OF SEVEN

ahh, now this is a fine, fine metal album. everything, from the melodies to the arrangements, lyrics, and production, is refined and perfected. well, except for the vocals, where I have some complaints: basically, the lead singer uses both clean vocals, growled vocals, and sometimes he just reads the lyrics. the clean vocals are excellent (except for the israeli accent, which is a bit annoying, sometimes), but the growls, despite being good most of the time, get a weird, 'flat', feel when the singer tries to hold a single note for more then a few seconds. also, the parts where the singer reads the lyrics are recorded in a stupid way, sounding like a radio host talking. I also think that there are places where the choir vocals were too loud in the mix.

But other then those complaints, it's all terrific! Appearently, the band spent 7 years (!) working on this album and it really shows: the guitar solos are absolutely incredible throughout (especially on 'Ocean Land' and 'The Storm Still Rages Inside'), the drumming is intelligent and non-trivial without damaging the songs, the keyboards manage to create atmospheric sound layers without sounding cheezy (take that, wakeman!), and the arrangements and songwriting are wonderfully layered and diverse (this isn't an empty statement. this is one of the most eclectic albums I have ever heard, mixing various types of metal with everything from middle-eastern music to Progressive rock, celtic music, classical music, electronic music, Jewish music and a bunch other stuff I can't put my finger on at the moment). the instrumentation is also unbelivably diverse and complex: you'll hear distorted guitars and keyboards backed with drums and bass topped by violins, pianos, cellos, flutes, acoustic guitars, percussion, buzuki, saz, oud, and other instruments whose name escapes me. and the band was able to make all of these instruments work together without interrupting each other or harming the overall direction, creating a VERY rich and dynamic listening experience.

Highlights aplenty: The aggressive riffs and amazing guitar solo on 'Ocean Land', the up-lifting na-na- na vocals on 'The Kiss Of Babylon', the opera-like 'character impersonating' and Dream Theater-esque instrumental section that end 'A Call To Awake', the ethnic instrumentation on 'Building the Ark', the fantastic piano solo on 'Norra El Norra', the folkish string ensemble that opens the title track, the long, beautiful guitar solo on 'The Storm Still Rages Inside', and many, many more.

Overall, this is one of the best metal album of the last ten years, and definetly one of the best prog- metal albums ever. stunning. 5/5