MABOOL - THE STORY OF THE THREE SONS OF SEVEN

Orphaned Land's third album seems to have taken both the critics and regular listeners by storm with their unique mix between Progressive metal and Jewish/Arabic influences. On top of supposedly expanding the boundaries of metal genre Mabool - The Story Of The Three Sons Of Seven also features a pretty well arranged concept that lingers all throughout the album. So how could I possibly give this release anything less than my warmest recommendation? Simply because the music isn't as good as all of the above factors might make it out to be!

The album features straightforward melodic metal with a little growl and middle eastern music thrown into the mix. What I'm basically saying is that growl and middle eastern music is mainly used as a gimmick here for making the material sound more ambitious than what it actually turns out to be. I'm not really taken by this music since it isn't all that technical or ambitious in its structure, instead relying heavily on melodic hooks to keep the listeners attention. Aside from a few very beautiful melodies and the concept itself there's just not much else I have to gain from this album.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for mixing sounds and styles especially when its done to create something new and interesting. All this recording needed to do in order to fulfill this criteria was to add a prolonged jam session where the Jewish/Arabic influences would have received a few prominent moments in the spotlight. Surprisingly enough this just never happens. Instead we get tracks like Halo Dies (The Wrath of God) and A Call To Awake (The Quest) that sound like complete parodies of the metal genre. Not really a smart choice on Orphaned Land's part considering that they themselves are playing by those exact rules.

Fortunately the music gets better with time and the last 30 minutes of the album, starting with Nora El Nora (Entering The Ark), does deliver a few moments where the band's middle eastern influences actually sound natural enough for me to see them as an important aspect of the music. The song trilogy right towards the end gives the album's concept a great ending which I find a bit undeserving for the mixed bag of an album that preceded it.

To me, Mabool - The Story Of The Three Sons Of Seven seems like an ambitious album that just doesn't deliver on all of its promising components. This is something that I'm sure could have been fixed by a bit more work on blending the subparts of the band's style into a coherent and natural mix. But seeing that this album took such a hefty chunk of time to complete we might as well wait and see if the band will improve with their next release.

**** star songs: Birth Of The Three (The Unification) (6:58) Ocean Land (The Revelation) (4:44) The Kiss Of Babylon (The Sins) (7:24) A'salk (2:05) Building The Ark (5:02) Nora El Nora (Entering The Ark) (4:24) The Calm Before The Flood (4:25) Mabool (The Flood) (7:00) The Storm Still Rages Inside (9:20) Rainbow (The Resurrection) (3:01)

*** star songs: Halo Dies (The Wrath of God) (7:30) A Call To Awake (The Quest) (6:10)