Orphaned Land & Amaseffer – Kna’an

Ah, they’re still fine! After an All is one that made me wonder if they aren’t placing their ambassadorial role above their musicians’ role and especially after the departure of Yossi, their main composer, I was starting to get a bit worried about Orphaned Land’s future. Fortunately, this new album is here to erase all my doubts and put my mind to ease, as the lovely Israelis put out yet another great record. And while it’s a collaboration and not their sole work, I do count it as an Orphaned Land album because their print is undeniable. I can’t say I’m very familiar with Amaseffer so I’m not sure how much they bring to the table, but most of the songs are typical OL and have everything I love them for. There are some innovations and departures from the style we know them for, but from what I know of Amaseffer it doesn’t sound like them either, so I suppose it’s just a natural progression from both bands together, not just influencing one another. In any way, with just one unfortunate exception we’ll talk about later, it sounds very good.

The album tells the story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and their sons, a story Orphaned Land already started beautifully in Brother and apparently took a liking to and decided to expand in an album of its own. It’s a sad album, for a very sad story – in the Bible you see it presented from the perspective of a fulfilled promise and it’s meant to show God’s grandeur, but here there’s a more personal approach and it’s very interesting to look at the feelings of those involved and what they went through as simple humans with flaws and desires and wounds. Overall, it’s very captivating, both thematically and musically and the music perfectly showcases the emotions and themes, it’s the kind of album where just listening to the music (without the lyrics) is enough to roughly understand the progression of the story.

For the most part the album is slow and gentle, full of ballads. Normally I would complain about the number of similar songs, but they are so touching one would have to be soulless not to enjoy them. Kobi has an amazing voice for this type of music, it’s incredibly warm and full of emotion and it brings the stories to life in a wonderful way. In fact, without his voice this album wouldn’t be half as good and the ballads would be a lot duller and less moving. The Naked pair is particularly beautiful and it captures Sarah and Abraham’s sadness and emptiness so well, the “like a tree that has no fruit” part is heartbreaking and even thinking about it gives me goose bumps. I swear that if you listen to them without any distractions and completely sinking in them, you could cry!

At the opposite pole of emotions are There is no God for Ishma’el and The angel of the Lord, both more metal and a little more aggressive, meant to showcase Ishma’el’s anger and pain. In fact, There is no God for Ishma’el is one of my favourite tracks, I love the growth and how it it starts from the low almost spoken vocals and then keeps adding – first the punctuated harmonies, then the full melody. It’s very memorable and intense. And speaking of Ishma’el’s anger, another favourite of mine is Fruits from Different Trees, which starts soft and melancholical, transmitting the caring between brothers and sadness at the separation, and then marks the breaking they cannot return from, with all the hatred that was sowed and the pain that was caused which can never be taken back. It’s an awesome song that parallels the story in a very vivid way. 

I was saying that for the most part it sounds like a rather typical Orphaned Land, but there is one song that stands out as different in this aspect, and that is The burning garden (and no, I don’t count the Therion-like choir in The angel of the Lord as especially groundbreaking for this band). It’s a very doomy track, with the classical burdening drums and minimalistic vocals of the genre, and it has a rather interesting dichotomy between the austerity in the beginning, with the harsh vocals that at first actually put me off, and the richness of the ending, with the soft, almost operatic vocals blending with the cold female voice and gentle male voice.

And now to the bad parts, namely the final Prisoners of the Past, which is immensely cheesy and I will pretend it didn’t happen because it’s such a terrible ending for such a good album. The music is very repetitive and sounds like something from The Trans-Siberian Orchestra (which ok, is nice when you’re feeling all Christmasy, but which falls extremely short after the whirlwind of sentiments of Fruits from different trees) and the lyrics… oh god, the lyrics. The message that the two people/religions should let bygones be bygones and stop hating each other for something that happened thousands of years ago (which in my opinion is a very simplistic approach of this multilayered conflict, but I guess this is not the place for social debates) is nice, but couldn’t they have presented it in a less corny and naive way? And couldn’t they have placed it anywhere else on the album, as to not leave a sour taste after so many awesome songs?

In any way, I think I already said enough times how much I love this band and this album (sorry Amaseffer, I’m sure your music is good too and I do intend to pay more attention to it, but it’s clear that I was brought here solely by my Orphaned Land obsession), despite of the few shortcomings. It’s a very heartfelt album, like most of their music, where the technical aspect may not be the most impressive, but which has value rather because of the amount of feelings it stirs. It has depth, it has soul and I cannot get enough of Kobi’s creamy soothing voice, I’m very excited about the result and even now, writing this review, I can’t wait to go back and listen to it.