And so the the Top 10 metal records of 2010 begins with #10.
#10
Orphaned Land - The Neverending Way of ORWarriOR
Orphaned Land is a band on a mission. Their music is in the service of the divine. Each note is inspired from upon high, telling the tale of the ORWarriOR – the warrior of light. There’s nothing that isn’t special about this album. With melodies plucked from their native Israel, the band employs the Arab Orchestra of Nazareth, replete with Arabian violins and local acoustic instruments. The mellifluously sung lyrics are sung in English, Arabic and Hebrew. It’s even mixed by Steven Wilson (well, that’s more a marketing specialty than anything else!) That aside, this album truly sounds like an arduous yet rewarding spiritual journey through the land of the ancients with a musicianship unrivaled in metal, rock or any contemporary music. They take the best parts of modern progressive metal and baptize it in the rhythmic waters of the Middle East and orient for a truly immersive, time-honored and weighty record. It's not immediate and it's not meant for constant replay. But it was six years in the making. For an album this good, I’d have waited six years more.