About Orphaned Land
Orphaned Land is an Israeli metal band formed in 1991. They are known to combine Mizrahi and Maghrebi Jewish, Arabic, Turkish, and other Middle Eastern and North African musical elements, with metal , as well as from Sephardic music, and other sounds from the Mediterranean. They have also included "metalized" versions of various piyyutim in all of their albums since El Norra Alila. The band are considered to be the pioneers of oriental metal. Orphaned Land have gone through several lineup changes over the years, but have retained two founding members of the band, Kobi Farhi and Uri Zelcha . They are joined by Matan Shmuely , Chen Balbus who replaced co-founding member Matti Svatizky in 2011, and Idan Amsalem who replaced co-founding member Yossi Sassi in early 2014. Their lyrics promote a message of peace and unity, particularly between the three main Abrahamic religions . The name "Orphaned Land" comes from the lyrics of a Yehuda Poliker song and reflects "a paradox" to the term "Holy Land." Four of their six albums are concept albums relating to the concept of Light and darkness.
Despite Orphaned Land's songs drawing on biblical themes, the band have said that they are not religious, with the majority of the band members identifying as atheist or agnostic, and are known for their ambivalence towards organized religion, blaming it as the cause of bloodshed and hatred. Kobi Farhi claims that metal is a kind of "religion."
Orphaned Land has developed a large following, "tens of thousands of fans," across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Iran, and have been described as "ambassadors of peace" for their message of unity, despite the heavy metal genre being considered taboo in, and with Israel being considered an enemy of many of these countries. In the Arab world, metal music is part of the underground - Orphaned Land once toured in Europe with a Jordanian band who wasn't allowed to play in their home country. In 2013, Orphaned Land toured Europe with the Palestinian band Khalas which Farhi claims proved that Jewish-Muslim coexistence is possible. The two bands would issue a split album with each other in 2021, entitled "The Peace Series Vol 1." The only Islamic country in which the band has played is Turkey; however, they were invited to play Dubai, but the show was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They have played in Turkey over 25 times which Muslim fans all over the world would attend, especially those from the Middle East, Iran, and Morocco. Orphaned Land is also known for having a large Haredi following, as well.
At the start of the band's formation, they played "regular" death metal under the name "Resurrection," with the goal to sound like At the Gates, Morbid Angel, Death, Deicide, and other similar sounding bands, and sang about topics like "death from radiation decay." They quickly realized, however, that they are "from a different place, a place with different temperature, culture, and colours, that is also the source of all the monotheistic beliefs," as explained by frontman Kobi Farhi. The band chose to write music that better projected this, incorporating middle eastern melodies and folk rhythms into their sound. In 1992, they changed their name to "Orphaned Land," believing that this name better suits their newer, more melodic style, which they dubbed oriental metal. This new style fused melodic death metal and melodic death-doom with elements of progressive metal, incorporating Middle Eastern and North African musical traditions as well as those of Mizrahi and Maghrebi Jewish, and Arabic origin, which has been described as a kind of early folk metal.
In 1993, Orphaned Land released their demo The Beloved's Cry, and in 1994, they released their first album Sahara, in which the band reworked four of the demo's six songs and wrote four new ones.
In 1996, they released their second album El Norra Alila, their first concept album, in which they amplified the "oriental" elements. The name of the album is based on the piyyut of the same name, which is recited during Yom Kippur as a plea of forgiveness, but also acts as a play on words using both Hebrew and Arabic, and can be translated as "God of Light, Evil of the Night," referring to the album's concept. The album also includes traditional Mizrahi piyyutim as songs, as well as sporadic use of Jewish liturgy, with heavier emphasis on Arabic melodies from their previous release. It explored the themes of light and darkness, conveying the message of commonality between the three main Abrahamic religions . This is a theme they would continue to use throughout their next three concept albums, as well.
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