...SIŁA I PIĘKNO MUZYKI TKWIĄ W JEJ RÓŻNORODNOŚCI.



..::OPIS::..

Pochodzą z Izraela, który kojarzy się w wieloma rzeczami, ale raczej nie ze sceną metalową. Do czasu? W połowie lat 90. wydali dwa albumy - "Sahara" (1994) "El Norra Alila" (1996) - w wielu krajach do dziś uznawane za kultowe. Później jednak zawiesili działalność, by powrócić dopiero teraz - płytą "Mabool - The Story Of The Three Sons Of Seven".

A jest to dzieło - nie boję się użyć tego słowa - zachwycające. W założeniu koncept album, przedstawia alternatywną historię potopu, który znamy choćby z Biblii. I o ile już sama warstwa tekstowa intryguje, na największą uwagę zasługuje muzyka. Grupa postawiła na różnorodność - znajdziemy tu tak wiele stylów i barw, że momentami trudno uwierzyć, iż całość wyszła spod ręki jednego zespołu. To, co od razu zwraca uwagę, to olbrzymia liczba instrumentów etnicznych znanych z kultury żydowskiej, arabskiej czy nawet hinduskiej. Raz spełniają one rolę ciekawego uzupełnienia ("Birth Of The Three", "The Kiss Of Babylon: The Sins"), innym razem są niejako podstawą całej kompozycji ("A Salk", "Building The Ark"). Trudno też przejść obojętnie obok niewymownego piękna partii wokalnych Kobiego Farhi, którego barwa przywodzi na myśl Maynarda Jamesa Keenana z Tool, choć potrafi zaskoczyć "rykiem" godnym najlepszego deathmetalowego krzykacza.

Epicki i podniosły klimat poszczególnych kompozycji wzmacniają liczne chóry, żeńskie wokalizy a la Ofra Haza, fortepian, a nawet smyczki. Łącznie w studiu pojawiło się ponad czterdziestu gości, co naprawdę słychać! "Mabool…" to płyta pełna kolorów i emocji, przypominająca ścieżkę dźwiękową z nieistniejącego filmu (posłuchajcie na przykład niemal musicalowego "A Call To Awake: The Quest"). Fenomen Orphaned Land wynika nie tylko z faktu, że nikt wcześniej nie wprowadził do swojej muzyki aż tylu elementów Środkowego Wschodu. Największy szacunek budzą bowiem same kompozycje, które już teraz nie można nazwać inaczej niż klasyką. "Mabool - The Story Of The Three Sons Of Seven" to dowód na to, że muzyka może przełamywać wszelkie granice, jeśli tylko tworzona jest z czystej potrzeby serca. Brylant!

Paweł Piotrowicz


Skoro mieliśmy na tapecie kapelę z Pakistanu, to kapela z Izraela także nie powinna być dla nikogo zaskoczeniem. Tym bardziej, że kapela to nie byle jaka, być może nawet jej nazwa obiła się wam o uszy. Jeśli się jednak nie obiła, to po to między innymi istnieje ten blog, by móc wam niektóre takie perełki przedstawiać. Bo o tym, że mamy do czynienia z albumem więcej niż solidnym, porządnym warsztatowo i stworzonym z rozmachem, jestem przekonany. Do rąk dostajemy przeszło godzinę bliskowschodnich progresji upiększonych growlami, chórami i tuzinem całkiem niegłupich solówek. Kolaż jest więc syty, ale i wrażenia po przesłuchaniu są adekwatne, a przeważa wśród nich chęć kolejnego przesłuchania. Jest to chyba jeden z ważniejszych wskaźników zajebistości płyty, kiedy po jednej sesji następuje kolejna. Wspomniana godzina z okładem mija szybko, co nie znaczy, że ucieka między palcami – mam raczej na myśli to, że słucha się Mabool bardzo miło i przyjemnie. Dzieje się tak dlatego, że Mabool to muzyczna opowieść, historia opowiedziana muzyką, a co za tym idzie dostarcza ona bardzo wielu, różnych wrażeń i odczuć. Godzina to bardzo dużo, jest więc pod dostatkiem czasu na rozmaite wstawki, przerywniki, recytacje, bliskowschodnie instrumenty i wiele innych atrakcji. Godzina to także wystarczająco dużo, by przekonać każdego do swojej wartości. Czasu jest na tyle, by móc zagrać tak coś żwawego, z podwójną stopą i growlami, jak i jakąś impresję, instrumentalną aranżację czy podobne cuś. Wszystko to zgrabnie się przeplata i zazębia, utwory, same będące niejednolite i wielopoziomowe, bardzo naturalnie przechodzą jedne w drugie, zachowując jednocześnie indywidualny charakter, a konsekwencją takiego stanu rzeczy jest bardzo kompletny charakter albumu, tworzący swoistą całość tak tekstowo, jak i kompozycyjnie. Mówiąc krótko – album koncepcyjny.

Albumy takie wymagają jednak od słuchacza pewnego zaangażowania, choćby po to, by mógł on uchwycić jego myśl przewodnią. Dlatego słuchanie poszczególnych kawałków ujmuje trochę ich wartości i sprawia, że biednieją. Podobnie jest w tym przypadku – zasiadając do Mabool, zasiada się do całej płyty, w przeciwnym razie większość klimatu gdzieś przepada i czegoś brakuje. Nawet jednak wtedy nie przepadają takie elementy, jak wyczuwalny, namacalny wręcz, talent kompozytorski i wyśmienite partie gitar. O kompozycji już co nieco było, przejdę więc do tego drugiego. Moim skromnym, a jakże, zdaniem, są one jednym z lepiej zrobionych elementów całego przedsięwzięcia. Energetyczne, porywające świeżością riffy oraz — raczej nieprędkie acz powalające ekspresją — sola są tym, czego taki album potrzebuje (i co dostaje). Na wyróżnienie zasługuje także bardzo dobra realizacja: czyste, klarowne i dość ciepłe instrumenty doskonale pasują do bliskowschodnich klimatów, tym bardziej, że orientalne instrumenty są używane często, niejednokrotnie tworząc linię melodyczną utworów. Czyste brzmienie daje także uczucie przestrzeni, dźwięki są tylko tam, gdzie zaplanowano, nie ma żadnych pogłosów i ech, jest precyzyjnie i zgrabnie, a także — w konsekwencji — oszczędnie w decybele. W wypadku tego albumu poczytuję to jednak jako zaletę, w innym bowiem przypadku zwarta ściana hałasu zagłuszyłaby wiele, bardzo delikatnych dźwięków i wszystko poszłoby w dupę. Na szczęście jednak tak się nie dzieje, realizacja dobrze wieńczy i kwituje godzinę tej, jakże przyjemnej, muzyki. Polecam.

deaf



"Mabool - The Story Of The Three Sons Of Seven" is the third release by Israeli oriental metal outfit Orphaned Land, and was heralded as one of their finest pieces of work.

One of the most revolutionary bands in the history of heavy music, Orphaned Land are an unstoppable force. Formed in Israel in 1991, these self-proclaimed ‘Oriental metal’ artisans have spent the last 26 years working tirelessly to use their creative endeavours as a means to spread a positive and peaceful message. Over the course of five conceptually deep and musically ingenious albums, the band have been true to their word, uniting fans across the Middle East and beyond, regardless of nation, face or faith.

Hugely respected in the world of heavy music – the band won UK magazine Metal Hammer’s ‘Global Metal’ award in 2014 – Orphaned Land have also been recognised for their tireless contribution to bringing people together, accruing three major international peace awards along the way. Meanwhile, fans have long been campaigning to see Orphaned Land awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, with many thousands already signing anonline petition. With fans spread across the globe, not least a diehard fanbase across the Arab world, the band’s quest for truth, love and hope has clearly made a remarkable impact, to the extent that modern prog legend Steven Wilson has proclaimed them to be one of the greatest metal bands on the planet.

“I would say that the Orphaned Land members are the most famous Israelis in the Arab world,” states frontman and founder member Kobi Farhi. “Those achievements, the peace awards we’ve received and the fact that we’re doing a better job than the foreign ministry of Israel, maybe it all means that we are the true ambassadors for our country. We are the ones creating a dialogue and friendship through music.

It seems safe to say that Orphaned Land are far from the average metal band. In 2018 they will once again prove the uplifting and unifying power of their extraordinary music. Several years in the making, Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs marks another high watermark for Kobi and his band mates. Inspired by the writings of Plato and the thwarted aspirations of peaceful revolutionaries throughout history, it’s a wholesale return to the conceptual depths and musical intricacy of earlierrecords like 2010’s Steven Wilson-produced The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR. Veering from epic brutality to ornate theatricality, armed with an astonishing array of inspired melodies and euphoric crescendos, Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs is simply the finest and most powerful album the band have produced. With guest appearances from prog rock legend Steve Hackett (ex-Genesis) and metal luminaries Hansi Kursch (Blind Guardian) and Tomas Lindberg (At The Gates/The Lurking Fear), it’s an artistic tour-de-force from a band with a formidable sense of purpose.

“When I’m writing music with the band, I’ve always been trying to figure out why humanity is unable to break out from the cycle of wars and bloodshed and ego,” Kobi muses. “It’s not due to a lack of solutions. There are many solutions. The biggest problem is that people don’t want to face those problems. If you look at the history of mankind, there is a pattern. Every time a revolutionary figure emerged throughout history, whether it’s Socrates, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi or many others, they were all assassinated. It’s a pattern that Plato acknowledged 2500 years ago and you can see that we’re still trapped in that. On this album, we say that loud and clear.”

As dark political shadows loom over the world and bloody conflict erupts with enervating regularity, Orphaned Land’s music and message have never been more vital than they are today. Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs promises to be one of 2018’s most celebrated albums, but this is one band that does not measure their success in record sales. Instead, the lost art of making the world a better place remains their primary concern.

“I had a conversation with a fan from Syria. He told me how important we are but I said to him, ‘I don’t know that we’re so important, we haven’t saved the life of one kid in Syria…’ which is true,” Kobi notes. “But then he said ‘Maybe you didn’t save a child’s life, but you gave hope to many people.’ That’s much more than nothing and we shouldn’t disrespect that. I’d be happy if Orphaned Land can just play a role of showing peoplethat there is another way and that we can step out of the darkness and go towards the light.”



Mabool is a metal album like no other. Sure, you've heard it all said before, but Orphaned Land hail from Israel and how many progressive metal bands do you know from the Middle East? Mabool is the kind of metal album that contains such exotic musical influences that you've probably all heard before but never meticulously mixed quite like this folks, I assure you.
Orphaned Land has this unequaled/unrivaled ability to fuse middle eastern musical influences with progressive death metal elements. All the songs flow seamlessly into one another both musically and lyrically - this is a concept album - and if you speak English, Hebrew, Latin, Yemen and gibberish, you'll understand it all perfectly.

This is a disc that begs to be listened to in its entirety, for listening to a few select songs will simply not do the album justice. The concept is a re-telling of the Biblical story of the great flood. In addition to their own lyrics, the band uses texts taken from the book of Genesis, the Rabbi Shalom Shabazi poems and uses a text from the traditional "Halel" praising song. Think of it as a story and nothing more.

Instruments used on this recording in addition to traditional drums, bass, acoustic/electric/classical guitars are the piano, violin, cello and the synthesizer. Atmospheric orchestrations all make an occasional appearance and you will also find that the band makes extensive usage of middle eastern instruments such as the Saz, Bouzouki and Oud.

Add to this a variety of vocal styles that range from Kobi Farhi's soft spoken word and clean delivery which includes chanting and a foreboding death growl, while Shalomit Levi provides the beautiful female voice. You also get an oriental choir that is used sparingly and in my view, just at the right moments throughout the album.

Mabool opens with children apparently singing and playing, nothing could be more innocent. When the band kick it in, the listener is immediately introduced to the bands distinctive metal sound. Keyboards, orchestrations, in fact the full gamut of instruments and vocal styles is included and everything you want to know about the band and the music is laid out on the very first track: "Birth of Three (The Unification)."

The first time I listened to "Birth of the Three" - I was finding it somewhat difficult to get into. But, by the end of the song, everything seemed to fall into place. And everytime I listened to the album, the same feeling kept returning to me on that very first opening track. It just appeared to me like the first half of the song didn't quite "fit" properly, but like I said, everything seemed to fall into place in the second half of the song?

Anyway, many months later and I still feel the exact same way about it today! The only difference now is that the album has had time to sink in a little more and thus "my understanding" of it has somewhat evolved. The first half of the song is indicative that something is really wrong in the world and in the second half, well...life goes on!

I think everybody who listens to the album will probably have their own interpretation of the songs. That pretty well stands for any music or album one listens too. Shall we resume with the music on the album...

The band continues with the heavy guitars approach on "Ocean Land (The Revelation)." The guitar solo is sweet, helps to remind the listener that the musicianship is top notch. "The Kiss of Babylon (The Sins)" includes more middle eastern elements. By now, the listener is fascinated and captivated by it all. The chanting, the progressive metal influences all interwoven together to create this wonderful opus. As the music fades away, Shalomit Levi's powerful voice starts to sing - a capella - the opening to "A'salk", simply beautiful. Acoustic guitar and other middle eastern exotic instruments are added to the track. Just a great musical moment. There is a very short spoken word segment just before the onset of "Halo Dies (The Wrath of God)." As the title suggests, this song is perhaps the heaviest on the album, which makes much use of Farhi's death growl.

"A Call to Awake (The Quest)" is reminiscent of Dream Theatre with its simple more straightforward progressive metal approach which comes complete with keyboard and guitar interplay and solos.

The album moves into a softer mode with "Building the Ark", acoustic middle eastern flavored track with piano and atmospheric orchestrations. "Norra El Norra (Entering the Ark)" begins like a folk track with strumming acoustic guitars but quickly moves into heavy territory. It bounces back and forth effortlessly with beautiful middle eastern harmonies. This one ends as an acoustic instrumental with a beautiful piano passage that segues into a two minute all acoustic guitar instrumental intro to "The Calm Before the Flood," which then gives way to an atmospheric instrumental complete with strings and wind blowing - then rain, thunder, violins, cellos - and just as the storm is building, so does the music.

Finally, "Mabool (The Flood)" has arrived, the climax of the story. My absolute FAV track on the album. Excellent guitar work throughout and the drums are varied and pounding and come complete with fast double bass drum passages. The first time I heard this track on my friends computer, it appeared to lack a little something, sounded a little subdued to me. When I listened to the track on my own stereo, well, what a world of difference a good sound system makes. :)

"The Storm Still Rages Inside" is a mid-paced slow moving track with a very lengthy guitar solo. Here, the guitarist uses an interesting scale with some bent notes that are purposely slipping out of tune, just as a raging storm would have naturally bent things out of harmony. The album comes to a close with streaming water and chirping birds, a classical acoustic guitar instrumental titled: "Rainbow (The Resurrection)."

It's amazing how the band can go from an acoustic passage to heavy guitars and back to middle eastern instruments and then back to heavy guitars again and make it all work flawlessly. Mabool is as close as one will ever get to an exotic progressive metal vibe. It's truly a beautiful piece of work from beginning to end.

Vanwarp



..::TRACK-LIST::..

1. Birth Of The Three (The Unification) 06:57
2. Ocean Land (The Revelation) 04:43
3. The Kiss Of Babylon (The Sins) 07:23
4. A'salk 02:05
5. Halo Dies (The Wrath Of God) 07:29
6. A Call To Awake (The Quest) 06:10
7. Building The Ark 05:02
8. Norra El Norra (Entering The Ark) 04:24
9. The Calm Before The Flood - Instrumental version 04:25
10. Mabool (The Flood) 06:59
11. The Storm Still Rages Inside 09:20
12. Rainbow (The Resurrection) 03:01



..::OBSADA::..

Kobi Farhi - lead & backing vocals, growls, chants & spoken voice, arranger & co-producer
Yossi 'Sassi' Saharon - 6- & 7-string electric guitars, acoustic (7-9,12) & classical guitar, bouzouki, saz, oud, backing vocals
Matti Svatitzki - 6- & 7-string electric guitars, acoustic guitars (7,8)
Eden Rabin - synthesizers, piano, backing vocals (live), orchestrations
Uri Zelcha - 4- & 5-string basses, fretless bass, acoustic bass (live)

With:
Shlomit Levi - vocals
Oriental Choir - chorus vocals
Avi Daimond - drums
Avi Agababa - percussion
Yatziv Caspi - percussion (live)
Jeanne Rabin - orchestrations
Moran Ensemble - various instruments
Oren Koren - violin
Noam Wiesenberg - cello




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy-Za1PMWf0



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