Introduction
When I started doing these reviews, I really started checking out these less mainstream bands and it's really starting to pay off. So, Orphaned Land is a progressive oriental metal band from Israel. The band has gone through several lineup changes but still features two original members. This is as far as I'm gonna go into the history of the band because I really don't know much about them.
Review
Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs is Orphaned Land's sixth full length studio album. Ok, so, the thing with this album is that it's an experience. And I mean that, this is nothing I have heard before. They have that oriental/middle-eastern sound and it fits amazing with usual metal instruments that you are used to hearing. There are some clean vocals and some growls and you can hear so much cohesion in that contrast. I feel like this is a concept album, I'm not sure though. It seems to tell a story about people trapped in a cave. Then the protagonist escaped but came back to rescue his brother as well. Then he explains to the people in the cave that there is the whole new world out there so they kill their leader/deceiver and they escape. This is an obvious allegory to the society living in the dark and the government feeding lies to them through the mass media. Not really the fan of the whole politics thing but the music on this record makes you look past that and just enjoy the pure sound.
Album starts with an epic eight minute opener. And even though I have never experienced any oriental metal it drew me right in. After listening to The Cave you will already get a rough picture about the rest of the album. The songs are pretty similar but at the same time very different.
After the opener, you get into the We Do Not Resist and you realize what I meant when I said that there is contrast on this album. This is pure skull-breaking metal track but it still somehow keeps that oriental sound. It's one of my favorites on this album.
Then we get to In Propaganda, this one is a bit weird because I don't know why I like it. There isn't much going on in this song considering the rest of the album but somehow it all fits together. I would describe this song as short but sweet.
With All Knowing Eye the band really slows things down, in my opinion this is the least memorable song to me on this album, it's still a great listen but a band set the bar really high with the rest of the tracks.
Following the All Knowing Eye we get to Yedidi. This track contributed the most to the fantastic pacing of this album, the song is in Hebrew so I'm not really sure about the lyrics, but it is a really short song and it just gets you something different for those 3 minutes.
After this kind of a break it comes the best track on the album hands down Chains Fall To Gravity, it's a true progressive 9 minute long masterpiece which is then followed by almost equally as good Like Orpheus. At this point, I am really surprised and I hope that the rest of the album can keep this up.
Then there is another pacing track Poets of Prophetic Messianism, it gives you some rest and sets the atmosphere for Left Behind.
Now, Left Behind is a really catchy song and it actually eases on the instruments and gives the vocalist a chance to shine. And that delivers that difference, that feeling of not everything on this album is the same.
My Brothers Keeper is a really kind of an unusual song. There is a lot of narration in this song but somehow again, it fits perfectly. The music behind the narration is what elevates this song to that great level. There is also growling in the end of this one and it just brings it all together.
I feel like Take My Hand would be just a good song if not for the fact that it was followed up by Only the Dead Have Seen the End of War. These two songs perfectly show the duality of this album with Only the Dead Have Seen the End of War being the heaviest track on this record and Take My Hand having only clean vocals. They did a great job of placing these songs on the album.
And here we are, at the end of this roller coaster. The ending of this had the potential to be great but it just kinda fell short. It was atmospheric, but nothing was really going on. And for me, the closer has to be great, to leave you with something to think about.
Final Word
Wow, this is a long ass article. You can kind of tell that this band left a huge impression on me when I took time to write this much, holy shit. This is one of the best albums that I have listened to recently.
I am definitely going to check out their earlier stuff and I am looking forward to their future projects. They have really intrigued me.
Hopefully this article inspired you to check out some new music that you haven't before.
Best songs on the album:
1. Chains Fall To Gravity
2. The Cave
3. Left Behind
4. We Do Not Resist
(I usually do best three songs, but I really couldn't make up my mind)
Album Rating: 92/100-Amazing album(Must listen)
Image Of the Band Credits
The album cover image is a cover of an audio recording, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the work or the artist(s) which produced the recording or cover artwork in question. It is believed that the use of low-resolution images of such covers
solely to illustrate the audio recording in question.
All rights go to Orphaned Land.
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