You don’t know what you can find until you travel with Orphaned Land on the “Neverending Way of ORWarriOR,” a sonic tapestry that flies a completely different path than the usual Western metal fare of Europe and the States, though for sure, there are common threads.  The influences of acts like Paradise Lost, Iron Maiden and the Beatles are evident.  But this latest effort, released on premier metal label Century Media, weaves elements together that run the gamut from blacker-than-black demonic intensity to let-the-sunshine-in hippie flamboyance.  Israeli bands tend to be perfectionist in their creations and the Neverending Way of ORWarriOR took seven years to release for a reason, proven in the disc’s polish, quality and virtuoso artistry.  Orphaned Land’s signature sound successfully blends the wealth of the Arabic musical genre’s unique melodies and odd-time styles into a solid metal and progressive rock basis that’s already won critical acclaim worldwide – but wait ’til they get a load of this one, which they will due to OL’s heavy touring schedule in Europe and the States this year.

The impressive classical guitar and string instrument skills of Yossi “Sasson” Sa’aron can set any burgeoning guitarist’s creativity ablaze. Vocalist Kobi Farhi spins tales with his style range, and the rhythm section of bassist Uri Zilha and Matti Svatizky wield the impeccably matched backbone of this Israeli band, who categorizes itself as “Middle Eastern metal” with dreams of instilling peace through their music.

Check them out here:  http://orphaned-land.com.

Listenable, melodic power metal in the vein of Iron Maiden & Aria with Mizrachi (Oriental) doses. A particular influence of Deep Purple is evident and differentiates the band, several of whose members also perform in Netanya’s classic rock cover band, Burn. OK, parts of the album could be a little tighter, and the intro of the second track sounds way too much like Braveheart, but the aptitude by which Afterlife paints Mizrachi layers on the basic metal foundation cannot be ignored. Vocalist Den Rizikov has a classically appropriate metal voice, hard to find in Israel, and all of the band members are quite professionally skilled which also doesn’t hurt. Some of the pieces on here could be movie soundtrack material as well, like the haunting segue of Track 4 into Track 5. This is beautiful stuff. No joke. Actually, speaking of jokes, “Closed Hell” actually made me crack up out loud. I don’t know if the melodrama was meant to be, but it was funny as um, hell. Check it out.

When listening to “Never Give It Up” I can’t help but feel cynical as to the chances of their success in the music environment today. But hey, Cinderella, Poison, Warrant, all of those guys are still playing high-selling national arena tours in the States (albeit with more than two bands on one bill) so who knows?

Click on the picture.

Alright. Gevolt is a Yiddish word that means like, for lack of apt translation skills on my part, “Aw, crap!” or “bloody hell” or something. I won’t be as corny to say this makes me wanna kick my heels up and scream “L’chaim,” but it’s definitely the opposite of something I would scream Gevolt about.

They named their album “Sidur” which means “prayerbook” in Hebrew. However, I don’t understand Russian, even if it is written in English characters in the CD jacket. So all I can tell you (and that’s before I interview them, cause b’ezrat Hashem there WILL be an interview) is this. Even if this band were from Thailand or something I would still push it with glee. Yeh, Gevolt reminds me of Rammstein. But they definitely can’t be written off like that. They intertwine said band’s kind of electropummeling with lighter and more intricate melodies. The vocals are a bit happier although vocalist Anatholy Bonder also does get down there in vocal chord frequency. And of course, they’re basing a lot of their tunage on Yiddish and Russian folk music, with violins and everything. It’s just a heavy, yet atmospheric, sometimes upbeat (but not in a faggy pop way) simply quality disc. Nab it.

And their Yiddish promo rocked, too! My mom heard the Yiddish classics made metal and muttered that they’d been wrecked, which means Gevolt did a fine job! Check out their main site: http://www.gevolt.net as well as their Myspace site.

The now extinct group Hangman appears on the Venom tribute album of the name “Gods of Goats.” The selected song, “Raise the Dead,” is of the (intensity?) that only they were able to do. The album is being released out of Poland and will be distributed mainly in Europe.

Desert
Prophecy of a Madman
A&M Releases

With tones of Paradise Lost, Manowar, Grave Digger, Rage, Blind Guardian, Moonspell and Aria, Desert boasts a breed of dark epic metal that’s catchy, understandable and technically proficient. Vocalist Alexei Raymar brings down the desert legends in an impressive range of vocal styles from growls to operatic while all the musicians are, as the Russians tend to be, masters of their instruments. Bass (Vadim Shulman) and drums (Max Balagula) provide the sonic tapestry upon which the intricate guitar (Max Shafranski) and keyboard (Oleg Aryutkin) work stands out notably.

Alexei Raymar’s vocals have a dramatic “Phantom of the Opera” sick ringleader kind of thing going – “The Prophecy of a Madman” is a great illustration of Desert’s flair of storytelling in music.

“The Desert (In Your Soul)” is dramatic, catchy and dark at the same time. You could hear this and a few other tracks on this album both in the goth clubs and on the metal circuit.

“The Lion and the Hawk” tells about the eternal war between Christianity (the lion) and Islam (the hawk). Says Alexei, “I always wanted to write a song about the Knights Templars and also wanted to connect them with the problem of religious wars. The main question of this song is when people will stop to kill each other over their gods?”

Sacred Throne is a Manowarish call to arms of unity and brotherhood, to fight for the Promised Land! Alexei says it’s totally inspired by Lord of the Rings, Gondor for Aragorn,the lost kingdom of the lost king. But I could for sure see IDF guys blasting this from their tanks when taking on the enemy. It’s a great anthem. And a great album. Check it out and pick it up at http://am.desertband.com/

I’ve been a Type O Negative fan since 1993 and I gotta tell ya, their latest effort made me pretty happy.

Type O was the first band to use straight up hardcore beats as a backdrop to horror movie organs, dirge and virtuously applied amp feedback with “Slow, Deep and Hard.” “Origin of the Feces” was a “live” album with the SDH songs on it but the characteristic Type O wit was more evident. It had been my favorite album up to this point as well as “Bloody Kisses”, considered by many to be the classic TON album. BK was more sensual but still had oomph. It set the stage for vocalist Peter Steele’s sonic porno phase with “October Rust”, heaped with layers of lush sound and Pete’s mojo. However, the dream (for me) started to die there. I liked “World Coming Down” at first but it was too damn depressing, though the two Halloween songs rocked and some really technically apt parts lit it up. “Life Is Killing Me” to me was just bleh except for the “Anesthesia” track. I hated it, specifically because of the lyrical content but I did think “How Could She” was a very creative piece. It wasn’t fun anymore.

That’s why I was really happy with this new album and would even go so far as to say it’s their best one yet. In “Dead Again,” all the sonic meanderings finally balance out. They took the best snippets of their own innovations as well as what they swipe from everyone else (Black Sabbath, The Cult, the Beatles, Deep Purple, Duran Duran (I think) etc) and tied it up tight.

Keyboardist/producer/guard of the royalties Josh Silver pounds out some beautiful pianowork on the “September Sun” track and he really tears it up a la Deep Purple on a few of the tracks. Really impressive stuff. Guitarist/vocalist Ken Hickey shines on this album. Every album, his work gets better and in my eyes he’s established himself as a damn good, versatile guitarist, between sheer wailing and eliciting atmospheric elements via amp feedback/stringing. He and drummer Johnny Kelly (a great drummer who obviously loves what he does and specifically rocks it on the “Some Stupid Tomorrow” track in grand style) are also in Seventh Void and Danzig, just so you know.

Though he’s one of the best vocalists ever and a fine bassist as well, Peter’s lyrics aren’t usually that impressive. This time, he raises a few eyebrows in “These Three Things” when he preaches against abortion. I do wonder if he would still hold the admirable sentiment if smacked with a paternity suit by a skanky groupie he never thought he’d see again.

However, I would wonder that about any male who is pro-life because I feel that it’s really not a decision for men to make unless they plan to spend money on getting those babies adopted or for the health care/housing costs of the women who are going to be pregnant for nine months without any support from the father.

I myself stand by the Jewish halachic opinion of abortion, which is that it’s basically murder and you don’t do it unless the woman is going to die or go certifiably nuts.

Anyway, another gem from Father Steele is that he seems to have referred to the fact (thanks Zero) that an unbaptized baby can’t get into heaven on that track. I find that very entertaining, whether or not he means it. There is an unconfirmed rumor that he was excommunicated for his snazzy little ditty “Christian Woman” (which incidentally boasted some of his best conceptual work) so if that’s the case, it’s pretty hilarious that he would give that credence. But the man just pulled a Charlie Chaplin on the 25th Anniversary Roadrunner recording and made up a completely new language so there’s often no telling if he means what he says.

Anyway, anything is better than listening to Peter kvetch about his love life and how everyone is mean to him… poor baby.

So, people are jumping from “These Three Things” like it’s a lightning bolt from the sky. It’s already proven to be a great publicity stunt. Judging from the Type O Negative forum, many of his worshippers are liberal uber alles so it’s nice to think they’re feeling slightly uncomfortable.

The one track that annoyed me on the album (besides all the kvetching) was good music with stupid lyrics – the “Halloween in Heaven” song. And the female vocals caused it to sound like the soundtrack for an HBO kids special or something. It grated on my nerves.

But like I said, I think it’s their best album yet. You did a great job, boys.

BRING OUR SOLDIERS HOME!!!!!!! CLICK THE PICTURE FOR MORE INFO

Rammstein meets Fiddler on the Roof? That’s what their Myspace site says. Not quite, however. It’s the Yiddishe classics made basic metal, in the vein what Yidcore does with punk. Some splices are better than others. It’s definitely worth a perusal if you wanna hear the traditional tunes strung out on electric guitar and screeching vocals. They even have the requisite power ballad in there, “Oseh Shalom”. What’s really nice is that a dollar from every CD sale helps MAZON feed hungry people around the world so if you get the album you’re giving tzedakah too. Check out their main website here.