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Orphaned Land β€” El Norra Alila

  • intothewellsabyss
  • Jul 18, 2023
  • 2 min read

π…π‘πŽπŒ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 π‚π‘π˜ππ“π’ - π‚π„π‹π„ππ‘π€π“πˆππ† 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 π€π‹ππ”πŒ 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐧 𝐭𝐑𝐞 π‡πˆπ’π“πŽπ‘π˜ 𝐨𝐟  𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 π‘πŽπ‚πŠ & π‡π„π€π•π˜ πŒπ„π“π€π‹β€¦



On this day (July 18) in 1996, Orphaned Land released their second full-length studio album, "El Norra Alila” via Holy Records.



The album was reissued as a deluxe edition in July 2006 as a 10 year anniversary for the album and contains extras; the song "Disciples of the Sacred Oath" and video clips of "Ornaments of Gold" and "The Evil Urge".




Background:

The bands second album, β€œEl Norra Alila” had many Eastern/Oriental influences, such as "El Norra Alila". The name is a pun on β€œEl Nora Alila” is a popular Sephardic piyyut which is sung during Ne'ilah of Yom Kippur as a plea of forgiveness.



It also included songs with traditional oriental Jewish piyyut and Arabic melodies. The album explored the themes of light and darkness, as well as conveying the message of commonality between the three main Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islam, and Christianity).



There are religious translations within the album name, "Nor" means "the light" in Arabic, "Alila" meaning "the night", "El" meaning "God" in Hebrew and "Norra" meaning "terrible", and "Alila" meaning "tale".



This means that the album can be translated as; "God of Light – Evil of the Night" and gives reference to its concept.



Critical Reception:

Reviewing the album for Metal-rules.com, El Cid stated;

β€œThe technical aspect of the music is incredibly tight, alternating at times between the stop and go riff and the crunching doom interludes, extremely interesting drumming, a soloing that is simply brilliant and the bass lines that for lack of a better word seem binding and appealing at the same time. The other element that makes Orphaned Land stand alone in the genre of Metal is their lyrical concept. The mixture of Christian, Islamic and Hebrew religious (and mystical) concepts simply is unheard of before this band.”

El Cid concludes with;

β€œIn all I think β€œEl Nora Alila” is a must in every Metalhead’s collection. Once you sit down and let this album completely sink in, I think you will fall in love with it irremediably…”

Links to Artists, Albums, and Music Videos:

β–Ά Listen to β€œEl Norra Alila” via Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/el-norra-alila-remastered/1160855672


β–Ά Listen to β€œEl Norra Alila” via Spotify: El Norra Alila (Re-issue 2016) [Remastered] https://open.spotify.com/album/2nehUuNwwsDbAdz310o90b


β–Ά Follow Orohaned Land on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OrphanedLandOfficial



Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. β€” E.N. Wells



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