Mabool - The Story of the Three Sons of Seven

Epic/Progressive/Folk-Inspired/Neo-Classical Death Metal with the perfect, extremely unique blend of heavy guitars, traditional middle-eastern instruments, clean singing, calm instrumentals, death growls, female vocals, choirs and chants, and a tinge of technicality - there is even some singing in Hebrew. I'd agree with anyone who says you simply can't put a label on something like this, it is just music. Ethnic Metal? That seems fitting. Additional instruments include piano, keyboard, cello and violin. This album probably reminds me mostly of Symphony X's "V," because of that album's Egyptian themes, except this has death growls and is less cheesy. This album really doesn't contain much death growls at all, which is perfect - I really wouldn't be surprised if they totally abandon them on their next album or maybe two albums from now (I'm actually expecting it) and it would be a logical and natural progression. Of course, they certainly don't ruin this album or anything. I've never heard any of their other albums and unfortunately they seem a little hard to find.

The album flows beautifully from one song to the next, with very good transitions from soft to heavy parts that some bands don't accomplish very well. The best part is when there is heavy guitar riffing and the folk instruments (I wish I actually knew what they were called) atop it with either vocal type, they really don't keep alternating between this in the songs too much, and when they do, it is very smooth The CD clocks in at 68 minutes, and I really don't understand when people complain that that kind of length is too much. It is only too long if it starts getting repetitive, which this album definitely doesn't do. I mean, there are 20-minute recordings that can be "too long" because they ran out of ideas. With Orphaned Land, the ideas and great musicianship never dry up and it's certainly not pretentious or over-the-top.

When some people find out Religion is the lyrical theme they get totally repelled and automatically hate the band. That really shouldn't be the case, it is more of a story that involves religion and is put together nicely, not preaching to the listener, and even if they were preaching, the music is so good I wouldn't care. Lyrics never mattered to me that much as long as they aren't ridiculously silly, and if they happen to be good, it's an extra bonus. Some of this is sung in Hebrew which I already mentioned, which definitely adds to the theme and provides an interesting touch.

The album starts out with "Birth of the Three," with a nice powerful riff, quickly adding death growls and traditional folk instruments. It turns out to have a good combination of all the vocals, occasional piano, and nice rhythm changes, and at the end there is an angelic choir singing with melodic heavy riffing in the back... probably the first time I've heard that in any music. "Ocean Land" is one of the best songs, it starts out with fast-paced strumming, I think it's a sitar, and then suddenly goes into the main song, contains excellent clean vocals in the "chorus," a little more choir vocals, and a perfect blend of heaviness with death vocals and a pretty nice solo. "The Kiss of Babylon" starts out with some of the heaviest material on here, and suddenly adds some more female choir vocals - so outrageous but it sounds perfect. Near the middle of this song, they abandon lyrics and just sing "Na na na na na na na" instead. It's not horrible, but they do it for a little too long for my tastes. Then there is a lone female vocalist singing in Hebrew, who has a gorgeous voice, but this also goes on for just a tad too long. Then begins the next song, "A'salk" which just has the folk instruments and also ethnic tribal hand-drums with the same vocals; it's a short song that brings a nice refreshing direction to the album and foreshadows a series of a few songs like this.

"Halo Dies" is heavy again, using a traditional instrument that sounds a little different at the beginning, then containing some of the most aggressive vocals for a while, before breaking down into a little keyboard and acoustic section then containing some of the best metal riffs in the CD. "A Call to Awake" isn't too much different from the heavier tracks, but then "Building the Ark" suddenly begins with some ethnic hand-drums, acoustic instruments, and male + female chanting type vocals and continues this way, it's a beautiful, encompassing track with great atmosphere. The next song "Norra el Norra" has some excellent male singing in Hebrew, and is one of the calmer tracks with distorted guitar, containing a great mixture of heavy and soft. Near the end a brilliant mini-piano concerto is added to the upbeat strumming in the background. "The Calm Before the Flood" is the album's calm breath of air with slow acoustic playing and strings, very lonely and eerily troubling. The band is knows how to make tracks like this just as well as heavy tracks, it truly sounds like the calm before the flood. At the end, the sound of rain quickly arrives, transitioning into the title track which adds some thunder and truly apprehensive sounding fast-paced strings, slowly adding the guitars, turning out to be another quality metal track. This turns right into "The Storm Still Rages Inside," the longest song. A good chunk of it is a metal instrumental with a long, winding solo, finally ending with a few female choir vocals and the sounds of water. But there is still more, after the flood is a "Rainbow", a calm, simple acoustic track with the sounds of birds chirping. It might seem like this drags on too long from my explanation, but I don't think it does, it seems like a good length.

All in all, this is one of the most unique, diverse and excellent metal albums I've ever heard, and will be in anyone's collection; it's one of my very top purchases of 2004. I really have no other bands to compare it to besides that Symphony X album which is kind of a stretch, so if you like your metal unique and thought-provoking, this is for you.