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Orphaned Land: Unsung Prophets & Dead ...
Orphaned Land - Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs CD Album Review

Orphaned Land: Unsung Prophets & ...

Symphonic Heavy Metal
4.0/5.0

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Century Media
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 15.01.2018

Affectionately know as "the most famous Israelis in the Arab world," Orphaned Land returns to celebrate their 25th anniversary with a new album, Unsung Prophets and Dead Messiahs. According to founder and vocalist Kobi Farhi, the album is "inspired by the writings of Plato and the thwarted aspirations of peaceful revolutionaries throughout history ..." Farhi adds, "If you look at the history of mankind, there is a pattern. Every time a revolutionary figure emerged throughout history, whether it's Socrates, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi or many others, they were all assassinated. It's a pattern that Plato acknowledged 2500 years ago and you can see that we're still trapped in that. On this album, we say that loud and clear."

Orphaned Land Band Photo

Orphaned Land

Putting aside politics and the ubiquitous Middle Eastern turmoil, Orphaned Land and their music can be easily explained as it hasn't changed much over the years. Essentially, they play melodic and symphonic heavy metal with liberal amounts of Middle Eastern music tones, a generous amount of thrilling guitar solos, and a smattering of death vocals. The symphonic orchestration and Oriental vibe sells the Orphaned Land sound, but also makes their song arrangements both large and lavish. All you need to add is Farhi's penchant for lyrical religious universalism and emotional storytelling. And then repeat. That's pretty much the Orphaned Land sound in a nutshell. Unsung Prophets and Dead Messiahs is exactly what you would expect from Orphaned Land. So, to quote one famous Israeli, King Solomon, "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun." But it always sounds great. Top song picks would include All Knowing Eye, Like Orpheus, Left Behind, and the quite beautiful Poets Of Prophetic Messianism, which is pure synthesis of classical music and melodic metal.



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The Bottom Line

Unsung Prophets and Dead Messiahs is exactly what you would expect from Orphaned Land: melodic symphonic Oriental metal. So, to quote one famous Israeli, King Solomon, "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun." But it always sounds great.

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