The Crow Debut full length album from Orphaned Land, one of the most original and disruptive death metal bands of the 90!

The production sounds old school and dusty these days, being the guitars the most damaged part of the album, among the noisy drums. But the extensive of oriental instruments like oud, darbuka and kanun, together with the powerful Kobi Fahri's vocals make this album more attractive than tons of other death metal records from the 90's.

Sadly, the songwriting is a bit irregular and sometimes even boring in the Sahara part of the record, being the compositions which come from The Beloved's Cry demo the best ones. However, the mystic and attractive mixture of their music among the prog approach to extreme metal will surely appeal both death metal hounds and prog archeologists.

Best Tracks: The Sahara's Storm, Season Unite, The Beloved's Cry.

Conclusion: dusty, poorly produced (despite the recent remaster) and too old school, Sahara is otherwise an enjoyable prog- metal album which still is one of the wildest death metal adventures of the 90's and a true example of how to mix very different musical (and not only musical) cultures.

To be tasted with the right perspective.

My rating: ***

P.S.: this review was orginally written for ProgArchives.com