Search - Orphaned Land :: Norra Alila (Reis)

Orphaned Land's apex of heavy progressive death metal

ACDIZZY | 11/04/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Orphaned Land's 1996 release "El Norra Alila" stands as a unique statement for the band, clearly never to be repeated, blending a consistently HEAVY guitar-focused approach with world metal elements and almost just as an after-thought: ambient death metal growls giving way at intervals to ambient "spacey" clean vocals. In sum, this is an excellent gem quite worthy of picking up. Fans of Opeth and Agalloch take note. The brilliant world music infusion is similar, but unlike 2004's "Mabool", the music here is stripped-down -- there is much much less Dream Theater inspiration in El Norra Alila.



The striking factor, to me, is that the highly-developed musicality is not compromised by in-your-face bare vocals which so often ruin progressive metal music when you do not personally love the vocal style. Here the vocals are very good but they are also back in the mix which allows the listener to focus on and breathe deeply in the ancient instrumentation as it melds with an almost melodic death metal drivetrain present in the songs. The vocals become just another instrument, which is surprisingly often the best way to go. The sum of the parts here is often simply breathtaking.



I tend to start my "El Norra" adventure by skipping the first track and dropping in on the drumming which introduces "Like Fire To Water", which to me is the perfect opener for this album. "Takaism" and "Joy" both provide lush interludes and thus act as excellent scene-setters between the constantly-evolving progressive metal suites that fill out this disc. Of special note, "Whisper My Name When You Dream" breaks out the cellos and female vocals in the last half for nice effect.



Purchasing this CD was exceedingly easy from orphaned - land dot com. Using Paypal, I received my CD from Tel Aviv, Israel, within 2 weeks. What is more, the booklet's historical & spiritual artwork is exceedingly cool.



"Mabool" (2004) fans owe it to themselves to hunt down "El Norra Alila" (1996) without rest or respite until it is found. It is that rare of a find. Orphaned Land have taken the approach of repeating very little here. Through their constantly evolving musical suites here, Orphaned Land has, intentionally or not, delivered us essentially a statement of life's omnipresent change and evolution. It's impermanence. That they do all this with a consistent, driving, guitar-focused heaviness -- that they would use more sparsely in their later recordings -- may indeed mark this album THE fan favorite for a certain branch of Orphaned Land's constituency."