Rating: 8/10
Release: 24 June 2013
Label: Century Media Records

In 2011 Orphaned Land released a live DVD. But we have to go back to 2010 for the last studio album of these Oriental Folk-metal band. Their previous studio album The Never Ending Way of OrwarriOR was a real masterpiece, one of the best albums ever.
Now the band is back with All is One, and the almost impossible job to conquer with the perfect previous one. The album is about brothers fighting each, the sad reality in the Middle-east. All is One, when you look at the album cover, you see all kinds of symbols of different religions united in one picture.
When I put it one, I’m immediately blown away with the fantastic choir which starts All is One the title-track of this album. A very nice track, this is what you can expect from Orphaned Land, you think you’re on the back of a camel travelling to the Middle-east. But especially love it when the choir comes back later on.
And they have more of this choir, in The Simple Man they’re back, not as prominent as in the previous one, but nice. And again I can’t sit still with this music. Visions of deserts full of belly-dancing metalheads come to mind, but fortunately this is probably a fata-morgana.
And they have nice quieter songs on this album too. Brother is again a song in which they express their feelings about the never ending war in the Middle-east, where brothers fight each other because they’re born in the wrong time. Beautiful sensitive track.
Let the Truce Be Know, if there is somebody who can’t stand Oriental melodies, don’t bother to listen to this album. The metal is really soaked with oriental sounds. Orphaned land is unique in the way they blend these things, it’s simply gorgeous. But how beautiful the music may be, don’t ever think the band is shallow. They have a clear opinion, they’re fed up with this war. The two brothers have meat each other and are enjoying the music which bounds them. But the other night they simply shoot each other in the name of their gods.
In the intro of the track Through Fire and Water their new bouzouki player can be heard, I nice add which fits in perfectly. You feel intense heat of the day on your face in the first half of this track. The second half is refreshing an much louder, with nice strings and a beautiful female voice. After Fail we get the very nice instrumental track Freedom. Which leads us to Shama’im and Ya Benaye, but the album has lost a lot of it’s strength here. In a relative way this is, it still sounds great, but I like the strength of the four tracks which start the album better.
This comes back a little with Our Own Messiah and Children.

Orphaned Land has made a very good album with All is One, there’s no doubt about that. But the band has a history which can’t be denied and I have to admit their previous studio album was a better one. But it’s not fair to expect a band to beat their last album every time. Baring this in mind it simply a very good album. The first tracks of the album are the nicest in my opinion. The message of this album is a beautiful one and this is underlined by the coverart ‘All is One’, a very very nice one.

Tracklist

1. All Is One 04:30
2. The Simple Man 04:53
3. Brother 05:00
4. Let the Truce Be Known 05:32
5. Through Fire and Water 04:08
6. Fail 06:03
7. Freedom 03:17
8. Shama’im 03:56
9. Ya Benaye 04:37
10. Our Own Messiah 05:16
11. Children 07:09