Miscellaneous

3.5/5
Orphaned Land comes all the way from the land of Israel to present us their great doom metal sonority in this debut. Sahara is an hour play of 8 tracks of Arabian atmosphere mixed with powerful and heavy music. This album is divided in two parts: "Sahara" (which contains their new tracks) and "The Beloved's Cry" (their demo tracks re-recorded), all this wrapped up in a good production. This band is very different from the rest of the doom metal scene because they use a lot of citars and a lot of other Arabian instruments instead of the usual ones used in this kind of music. I think that tracks like "Blessed Be Thy Hate" and "Seasons Unite" will make most of the doom metal fans happy. (Nuno Martins)

The second album from Israel's most known metal band. Pretty much a continuation of the style from their debut release : melodic, atmospheric death metal with a good mixture of screaming and clean vocals. The strongest aspect of this band's music is the incorporation of all sorts of unusual influences, ranging from Hebrew folk chants to gothic keyboards. I respect Orphaned Land because they make a conscious effort to be original and not to sound like others. I would probably have rated this album better if not for the fact that I am not such a big fan of this traditional metal melodic guitar riffing (something a bit more bass-heavy and chugging would be more to my liking), but those of you who appreciate it will definitely find this release to be of interest.