MABOOL - THE STORY OF THE THREE SONS OF SEVEN

This is an absolute amazing CD! Prog metal is way too narrow label for such richness of music, text and perfomance. Ok, there is heavy metal parts alright, but they are just part of the mix that also includes jewish folk, eastern thythms, arab chants, orchestrations, choirs and so forth. This is progressive with a capital P! The music is inspired, powerful, melodic, epic and exciting. Even some death metal growling are included. Usually I don´t like this style of singing but I must admit that in this specific case they work very well. Fortunatly most of the lead vocals are of the ´clean´ type. they remind me of the fantasitic Amorphis album Elegy.

The absolute highlights are the guitar parts, with some very fine, melodic and passionate solos. No weak tracks or fillers of any kind. It is one of those CDs you can hear from beginning to end with pleasure and awe. Progheads might like the Cd´s second part more than the first tracks, though. I really enjoyed the creative arrangements. Special note must be given to the vocals too; the use of female backing vocals, eastern chants, spoken words and choirs is fantastic. Acoustic guitars, ethnic instruments and varied percussion give extra colours to the overall sound. Keyboards are also very wel done. In fact, nothing is out of place here! Everything falls into place smoothly. Production is not spectacular, but more than adequate for this complex piece of work.

My sample has an extra CD with 5 extra tracks recorded live with acoustic instruments only. Here their folk roots are even more proeminent. Very interesting how Orphaned Land´s music works well both on the electric or acoustic format. Nice!

Not really your traditional prog metal record, but a very important and unique CD that will please anyone who is interested in sometihing new. 4,5 stars. Highly recommended!