I’ll be honest with you, I am a huge Orphaned Land fan. It’s one of the few bands that I’ve seen multiple time live, at one point twice in the same week, and I never miss them when they swing by. My wife and I have their albums on constant rotation, rain, sleet or snow, and it’s one of the few bands that we wholeheartedly agree upon.
Now that we got that out of the way, I need to confess something: their previous album, All is One (AiO) was a disappointment for me. Gone was the energy, the fire that drove the band forward. All was left was a weak, generic oriental metal, with little to say for itself. Sure it had some good songs, but overall nothing memorable. While competent it was just bland. And Orphaned Land are anything but a bland band. Now you understand that I was more than a bit apprehensive with their latest album, Unsung Prophets and Dead Messiahs. Fortunately all that was laid to rest when the first advance tracks started to land, one of which, the awesome We Do Not Resist, you can enjoy below. Actually just go ahead and press play while reading this, it’s worth it, just for the raw energy that seeps from every note. And there you have the secret sauce that was missing form AiO. I’m not talking just about the earth shaking harsh vocals from Kobi, but the feeling of a band that truly has something to say.
Now about the album itself: first of all it’s worth noting that Orphaned Land have returned to concept albums. And this is a very interesting one, being based on Plato’s “The Cave” which in turn is inspired by the Greeks killing Socrates. I’ll leave you to explore it fully, but in a nut shell, the allegory is about how enslaved people (chained in darkness) are content with their current situation, and how they react to freedom (light). The hero of the story manages to escape his shackles and seeing the glory of the outside world, goes back to save his chained friends. But upon returning to the cave, he is killed by them, since they believe that he has gone insane, and that there is no outside world. So there you have it, a deep subject translated to the present times and put through a glorious oriental filter, resulting in what is most surely one of the best albums of 2018.
Technically this is a long album, spanning across 13 tracks totaling 64 minutes. There is also an deluxe edition with a second disk containing multiple live recordings as well as an awesome cover of Pearl Jam‘s Jeremy. If possible, get this edition since you need to hear this band live if you never had the chance. In terms of production, while loud, all the elements are well balanced and easily distinguishable even in the busier moments. The rhythmic section is very strong Uri Zelcha’s bass being consistently audible and a big part of the sound, and Matan Shmuely (also of Subterranean Masquerade) drums constantly driving the music forward. Since original guitarist Yossi Sassi has left the band, the ax duties have been taken over by Chen Balbus and Idan Amsalem. New guitarists always represent a change in sound, but here I want to point out that they took Orphaned Land‘s original sound and pushed it to new heights. Driving riffs, soaring solos, hooks to satisfy a fisherman, it’s all there and with great aplomb.
To give you a sense of the scale of the work put into this album, there are 44 (!) guest musicians present in the recording. Most of these form the choir which is a welcomed element carried over from AiO, but there are three guests which you should take notice of: Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) on Like Orpheus, Steve Hackett (Genesis, yes that Genesis) on Chains Fall to Gravity and Tomas Lindberg (At The Gates) on Only the Dead Have Seen the End of the War. All these additions add a lot of texture to the already rich palette which the band is known for, so there is no dull moment across the album’s entire span.
I had actually prepared notes for a track-by-track review of this album but this is getting already long, and I don’t want to fully spoil it for you. So instead let me talk a bit of what I didn’t like from it: firstly, the strongest tracks are concentrated at the start of the album. By the time the instrumental Poets of Prophetic Messianism comes around the listener has already gone through the advance tracks and a great amount of material. This overshadows the second half, which is by no means to be ignored. Some of Orphaned Land‘s most heavy material can be found in Take My Hand and Only the Dead Have Seen the End of War, which serve to present the tragic end of the allegory. Secondly, Chains Fall to Gravity, the longest and most progressive track of the album could have used a bit of editing. It mostly serves as a wrapper for Steve Hackett’s guest solo, and the bass track seems to be lifted directly from Opeth‘s Ending Credits.
But these are small nit-picks for an album this strong. Everything flows (almost) flawlessly. Kobi’s voice has the widest range on any of their albums, going from guttural growls to soaring heights as In Propaganda, to traditional inflections such as on Yadidi. It’s safe to say this album features his best performance yet. And the lyrics match perfectly to his emotive delivery. A good example is the closing track, obviously named The Manifest – Epilogue:
Sometimes it seems to me that this world is nothing but a beta version of this amazing thing, and while our maker has gone to his next improved version, we are left behind in this Flying Dutchman.
Those blessed, cursed humans
You may call them authors, true leaders, kings with no crown or simple human beings, they lived and died here they are always among us – those unsung prophets and dead messiahs.
Unsung Prophets and Dead Messiahs is a superb album, one that I will happy listen to for the next five years before the band releases another one. It’s a must buy for anyone enjoying the oriental aesthetic. It’s also one that needs to be experienced from start to finish, and surely seen live. That being said, thank you for bearing with me slobbering all over this one, but it’s just that good.
In the end I’ll leave you with the excellent track by track commentary from Kobi, who goes deeper into the concept and how the tracks relate to it.
Cheers!
Not Kinetic Per Se 
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