To quote someone else on this forum [I don't remember, Anton or Nathalie?], each and every album is like a child, different but equally loved. It's really hard choosing just 5 so I shall name my top 3 from each album. I shall just listen to each song as I type it out, sorry for making this long, but in true forum tradition [read Hill and Anton
].
I hope this doesn't scare the new members to post here.
Sahara
The Sahara's Storm - That eeirie feeling combined with the raw, highly underproduced sound spells out some true underground Oriental magic. Sure, their arrangements have become more complicated exponentially, but this reflects tremendous musicianship for a first release.
Ornaments Of Gold - This one is undoubtedly one of my favourite Orphaned Land songs, it's truly amazing how it remains fresh after so many years and the live evolution of this song is remarkable. Quite obviously, I love this song for that Oriental riff towards the ending which begins the buildup for the climax, and the climax itself. O-ho-ho-ho-ho-hooo-hooo, beautiful stuff, that solo thrown in over there is beautiful and so is the same synth melody [one element I miss in the newer albums].
The Beloved's Cry - No one can deny the fact that this is probably the most soul-stirring OL song of all time. The sadness conveyed is very very strong. I'm sure this song generally has a big big impact when performed live, between the other heavier and complex songs. I'm quite sure I would shed a tear or two if I stood in the crowd when that happened.
El Norra Alila
Of Temptation Born - A very very strong song riff-wise and wuld probably feature on a potential top-5 list in the future. The trademark weeping lead guitar is prominent alongside some of my favourite riffs of all time. And, as with Ornaments Of Gold, the outro is plain brilliant.
I AM FOREVER ORPHAAAAAANED.
The Evil Urge - The vocals accompanied by the strumming bit [and violin melody] followed by the acoustic solo is a definite hit for me. But the real clincher is how the mood suddenly shifts into something mystical.
In us all, there are two separate sides.... The lyrics are some of my favourite and it's almost like a gospel of sorts. And of course, the nack of ending the songs on a very epic note, is just marvelous.
El Meod Na'Ala - I love this song in all it's avatars. 'Nuff said, one heck of a song. I must admit that if this song wasn't on ENA, I most definitely included Shir Hama'Alot. That song is magical with the Oud and Yossi's father's [?] vocals. Not that I got bored with Kobi's vocals, because that's near impossible, but it's an nice and interesting change.
Mabool
Norra El Norra - This is probably like the Sapari of Mabool. Seemingly simple, yet amazing. This song had to feature as it was my first song and hence means a lot sentimentally. I'm glad I accidently heard this song and gave it a second listen, and let then Fate had something incredible in store for me. That little
aaaaaah also happened to be the first time I heard Shlomit sing, and has since remained one of my favourite female vocalists of all time. This song is quite uplifting to say the least, and the vocal melody sort of reflects it. YET again, the outro is by far the best part of the song. That piano solo is unexplainably awesome and beautiful.
The Kiss Of Babylon - This song, with it's newer more progressive style while maintaining the death-doom essence of old never fails to get me hooked. The Bouzouki riff with Kobi's chants has some addictive element to it as I invariably start playing it whenever I have an acoustic guitar in my hand. The next na-na-na-na bit always is very nice to sing along to. Very hard choice to make considering Halo Dies and Ocean Land are brilliant as well.
The Calm Before The Flood - Never fails to put me into a contemplative/introspective mood. I generally tend to reflect a lot upon a lot of things whenever I hear this songs. True to it's name, it has some kind of a doomsday vibe. Does this happen to any of you'll ?
The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR
This was by far the hardest choice that I've had to make, as I love virtually each and every song and as all of you'll would have experienced, it's very easy to listen to the whole album in one shot.
Disciples Of The Sacred Oath II - Complex arrangements, heavy usage of ethnic instruments such as the Nay and the Arabian violins added to the the Koran verse makes this song a very easy choice. Added to the fact that it is lyrically very strong as well.
New Jerusalem - Somehow I found this song slightly overrated for a long time. Day before yesterday, when I finally got the CD, I put it in my comp and heard the same thing that I had heard many times already. But this time it was something magical, turning me into a bit of an emo after a long long time. Maybe it's because the docu features Yossi's solo, which might have possibly triggered my interest. But now I find it one of the rather intense songs. [
unnecessary]Wait a minute, I just remembered that I noticed this a long time back. This is the song which has the tune Yossi was humming in the car ages ago
.
Barakah - Neat melodies, fantabulous runs [including the mesmerizing one on the Bouzouki]. Honestly though, I don't know why I like this song as much as I do. The rest of the songs are all amazing and it's a pity that they didn't make it to the top 3 of this little list. But on the other hand, this has been one heck of a record where one finds it so hard to pick 3 songs. That's amazing isn't it ?
