El Norra Alila

I have always had a special interest in experimental fusion projects. You know, those that dare to go beyond the conventional metal sub-genres. Baphomet knows, have I given a chance to the most bizarre statements out there! Unfortunately, the guys who actually try to make an original statement… well, are often untalented weirdos.

Lucky me, that’s not the case of Orphaned Land, yet I must admit I was reluctant to listen to them again, as my expectations when listening to “The Beloved’s Cry” were not exactly fulfilled. Not at all. Why? Too… generic, if you like.

Truth be told, “El Norra Alila” is a completely different story: there are so many elements to be appreciated here! I could mention, as a start, the multiple vocals Kobi Farhi performs, nurtured of course by a considerable number of back vocalists. As it usually occurs with this type of work, that variety gives the record a rather special flavor if you know what I mean.

There’s also a wide gamma of acoustic and traditional instruments such as kannun, tambourine, darbuka, zil, tar, bendir and dumbek. No matter WHAT ON EARTH those are. My point here is you won’t get bored. There are many, many details to be found that 10 listens might not be enough to become familiar with’em. Add more and more plus keyboards and perhaps, just perhaps, there are too many.

Guitar work is in general pretty decent. It sort of leads the whole line of the composition, and there’s a couple highlights I’ll let you, dear expert banger, to find out; let’s just say even this kind of metal can use breakdowns, furthermore, in a quite intelligent way.

With regard to the rhythm section, I must say bass playing surprised me in this one. Take “A Neverending Way” as an example. Is a complex song indeed. Particularly when the calmest passage appears, Uri Zelcha steps forward and shows off his skills as a jazzy performer, grooving and taking command of what’s going on. Just classy. Although, I honestly didn’t find any flaw withing the drumming, I’d say is discreet. On the other hand, with such over-elaborate compositions it’s undeniable it should have been easy to keep up with all that’s happening at the same time, and not to be overshadowed.

Just as a curiosity, the release I got (Scarecrow Records) also includes the Paradise Lost cover, “Merci”. Well accomplished for me. As a matter of’act, the mentioned version of the album, is actually a double feature which includes the so mentioned classic, “Sahara”. I haven’t had the time to check that one out…

While most folk acts are trying to make their way with mediocre clichéd catchy tunes, “El Norra Alila” rather goes for integrating Middle Eastern stuff, complex almost experimental music, and a strong commitment to their roots. Also, when it comes to subject of fusion, that’s what you get! Not just part A, part B and part C. A great display of originality, believe me.

—Originally written for www.globaldomination.se

Middle-eastern folk metal is a new one for me, and it is an interesting one I must admit, after listening to Orphaned Land. In "El Norra Alila", a huge middle-eastern touch is sparkled, which is much aided by the incorporation of folk instruments and they’ve sort of developed their own uniqueness over each of the tracks assembled here. Melodic harmonies are dominantly prevalent, the guitar work has been presented superbly and the use of clean vocals is also quite splendid.

The songs have enclosed a huge feel and sentiments within them. Melodies are deep and expressive. Take “The Evil Urge” for instance – it isn’t metal but the music has got a strong feel, and the melodies are coloring this beauty throughout.

The key emphasis is upon the embellished guitars. It supplies an ideal flow of one good riff after another good one, and they’ve been able to generate the aforesaid middle-eastern ambience quite well through this instrument. In addition, there are numerous marvelous parts here and there where some traditional folk strings are used.

The usage of clean vocals is also remarkable as they are always backing the continual melodies. The growls are quite okay… alright, alright, they’re excellent unless they were not used in more extreme form of metal. Female vocals are detectable in track as “Whisper My Name When You Dream”.

Drums are simple, yet effective. Some funky beats are also evident, i.e. “The Truth Within” (0:36). The bass guitar is neat and has a fair volume. Beside, the album has been produced fine.

For me, the foremost downside (if you call it one) is, while listening to the record and doing something else, you never discern when one track has moved to another, because there are few songs without proper endings but instead there are continuations to their followings, e.g. when “The Path Ahead” finishes and shifts to “A Never-ending Way”, it doesn’t give a hint that a new track has come, because there’s no ending to the former one. Well, this is not so vital anyway, I guess.

I liked “Find Yourself, Discover God”, “Like Fire to Water” and the non-metal track “The Evil Urge” among others, while the instrumental “Joy”, featuring folk percussions and strings is also a short and sweet one.

'El Norra Alila' is Orphaned Land's greatest work to date.

Two years after debuted with their groundbreaking 'Sahara', the band released their second album and reinvented themselves with a different, unique atmosphere that you'll find only in 'El Norra Alila'.

Gone are all the doomy influences and the songs got much shorter than before. This album actually stands out for it's different character than their earlier efforts, which were written only several years before this album came out. What a great change in such a short period of time indeed.

The spinal column of this album is definitely the guitars of 'Yossi' and 'Matti'. The riff work of this album is somehow genius. This album feels very monolithic due to the endlessly and perfectly flowing of the guitars, which are so plentiful and unique
sounding. They are just brilliantly composed. There are no verse-chorus songs here, all of this album is a brutal, melodic and sweeping continuity of briliiant ideas which merging together flawlessly and creating together a great wall of majestic atmosphere that will blow your mind for countless listenings. So yeah, if you like quality riffs, you'll die on this album.

The vocals on this album are a sheer improvement. 'Kobi Farhi' reveals here as a great and highly abundant vocalist. His growls are brutal than ever but they remain very comprehensible at the same time. But the highest plus here is the obvious using of clean vocals. As opposed to 'Sahara', where the clean vocals were most of the time used as a speaking voice or had some short melodies here and there, here the clean vocals takes a much bigger part and are way better than before.
The vocals had been recorded in different channels, contains a splendor of different ideas which are being balanced together and creating a beautiful harmonies. Tracks like 'The Truth Within', 'The Path Ahead' and 'Thee By The Father I Pray' contains a brilliant usage of emotional, soaring vocals among with harsh growling and adding a rich layers of emotions for the fluidly marvelous riffs.

Sami Bachar's drumming is also pretty complex and brutal. There are quite much breakdowns and ideas that weren't presented before and increase a lot to the overall flowing of this album.

It really doesn't matter how much I'm gonna talk about this album, or how much you gonna read about it. Words can't transfer enough well the deep emotions reflected from this astonishing, underrated album. If you still haven't heard 'El Norra Alila', than you simply missed something unique that can't be found anywhere else, and is worth a fortune.

Simply get this album and let yourself wander deep into the hypnotic atmosphere of 'El Norra Alila'...literally, it's an unparalleled expirence.

First of all, just to remove any doubt, I believe Mabool to be one of the best albums ever released. However, I do believe this awesome band's El Norra Alila is even better than Mabool. Orphaned Land is one of the few bands that managed to go change every release. Sahara doesn't sound anything at all like El Norra Alila, that doesn't even really remind of Mabool. You could still label it under the genre of middle-eastern death metal, but you wouldn't immediately tell it was even the same band.

Anyway, just how is El Norra Alila better than Mabool? First of all, Kobi Farhi's vocals. They sound different here. He uses his deep speech-voice much more often than he does on Mabool (which is a real pity, as he has an AMAZING clean voice), and his growl is a little higher-pitched than in mabool, which is also good. Secondly, the riffs. Oh, such great riffs. El Norra Alila has some of the best riffs I've ever heard. Find Yourself, Discover God, the first song in the album, demonstrates what excellent guitar work you are going to experience from the first guitar note it features. Moreover, the construction of this album is perfect. The instrumental parts fit right in between heavy songs, and Shir HaMa'alot, that could be a rather annoying part of any other Orphaned Land album, makes this one only better.

Some of the songs that best demonstrate all this are Find Yourself, Discover God, Flawless Belief and Of Temptation Born. Go Orphaned Land! If you liked Mabool, then you should most definitely get a hold of this album. It might be a little harder to get used to than Mabool was, as it's not as catchy, but overall I consider it a better effort than Mabool ever will be.

Orphaned Land worked out a few of the problems with their debut, namely the lenghty, meandering songs, and really came into their own with this album. These originators of the "oriental" sound took their best and most original elements and expanded on them a little bit. What they came up with is a near masterpiece.
The two best elements of this album are Kobi's versitile voice and Yossi and Matti's fluid guitar playing (especially Yossi's leads).
Kobi chose to use a bit more clean vocal on here, and he's really good at it. I almost prefer his clean vocals to his death growl, but he does a great job with both. In fact, Kobi has a very, very good death growl, sort of raspy, but very comprehensible. Think of an oriental Garm, and you're not too far off...
Instead of using melodies most of the time, like they did on the debut, there's a bigger focus on the rhythm guitars. Because of this, they sound pretty unique, not just the average black or death metal shredding. The solos are of course very melodic, emotional, and oriental sounding, but they're performed flawlessly and fluidly.
"Like Fire to Water" is the coolest song on this album. It's a shorter, more powerful version of what they were doing on most of the songs on Sahara. They go through all the motions of what they are about, but it WORKS. You don't feel jarred by the changes, and it all comes across in a very direct way. "Whisper My Name When You Dream" is another one, with a very powerful, melodic midsection with Kobi singing with some woman. Interesting guitar work in this one too.
There are a few songs on here that are actual folk songs done up in the Orphaned Land style, and the one that works best is "El Meod Na'ala" There's a whole choir of men singing something in Hebrew, then a virtual army of guitars join in. Really interesting to listen to, and very powerful as well.
Up until Mabool, this is their magnum opus. I'd almost prefer this to Mabool, because it seems more ethnic, but with both of these albums you can't go wrong. Once again, not for the straight-up brootal type person, but if you like good guitar work, and lots of variety, check this out.