Sahara is Orphaned Land's debut LP. With eight track filled with their special form of death/doom metal and traditional Arabic instruments, this is a truly special album. Tracks like "Ornaments of Gold" and "The Beloved's Cry" show that this band are in a league of their own. Comparing those songs show this band's versatility. This album saves the best until last with "Orphaned Land - The Storm Still Rages Inside..." - a nine-minute-ten-second classic that gives anything else this band has released a run for its money.
I'd like to say that this is their best album to date, but that arrived ten years later with the release of the breathtaking Mabool.
This isn't to say that the band or their music is untalented and unoriginal, because this album is neither of those things. However, there seemed to be something powerfully lacking on this record that kept it from attaining a much higher place in my ears. It feels like there is a lot of potential coming from this band, I just feel like a lot was wasted with this debut. Perhaps I just started listening to this unit in the wrong place, and will check elsewhere in their discography.
