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 Orphaned Land performing live at Summer Breeze Open Air, 2007
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Resurrection |
| Origin | Petah Tikva, Israel |
| Genre(s) | Progressive metal Oriental metal Death/Doom |
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Label(s) | Century Media |
| Associated acts |
Porcupine Tree Paradise Lost Crossfire |
| Website | www.orphaned-land.com |
| Members | |
| Kobi Farhi Uri Zelcha Yossi Saharon Matti Svatizky Shlomit Levi Yatziv Caspi |
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| Former members | |
| Sami Bachar Eden Rabin Itzik Levy Eden Rabin Avi Diamond |
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Orphaned Land is a progressive metal band from Petah Tikva, Israel whose music contains Middle-Eastern influences. Their previous name was “Resurrection”[1] in 1991 (not to be confused by Resurrection, a Floridian death metal band) and later changed to “Orphaned Land”, which more accurately portrayed their cultural identity and traditions specific to their location.
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Music and themes
Orphaned Land fuse doom and death metal as well as Middle-Eastern folk music in a form of Oriental metal and Jewish and Arabic traditions. Each album has some concept related to two extremes such as: a meeting of east and west, past and present, light and darkness and God and Satan.[2] The band’s first album was Sahara (1994) which was originally released as a demo. The second album, El Norra Alila (1996), had many eastern/oriental influences and hidden meanings that can be found within the album including its name. The name “El Norra Alila” is a poem song by the Jewish people during Yom Kippur as a plea of forgiveness by God. There are religious translations in the album name as well; with “Nor” meaning “the light” in Arab, “Alila” meaning “the night”, “El” meaning “God” in Hebrew and “Ra” meaning “bad” or evil. This means that the album can be translated as; “God of Light – Evil of the Night” and gives reference to its concept. It also included the addition of songs with traditional oriental Jewish piyyut and Arab melodies. The album conveyed a message of co-existence between Jews and Muslims with its concept of light and darkness, which will be a recurring theme with their new album.[3] The third album, Mabool: The Story of the Three Sons of Seven (the Hebrew name for the Deluge, depicted in the Bible and Noah’s story), 2004, was in the making for seven years and was a highly arranged album. The album tells the story of three sons (one for each Abrahamic religion) who try to warn humanity of a flood coming as punishment for their sins. Musically, the album contains oriental instruments, two choruses, traditional Yemenite chants sung by Shlomit Levi and quotes of Biblical verses from the story of the deluge, read by vocalist Kobi Farhi. After Mabool, Orphaned Land released an EP, Ararat (2005) that was named after Mount Ararat and includes a picture of it on its cover, as well as a reference to areas in or around the Middle East. Orphaned Land are currently working on the follow-up to Mabool, titled The Never Ending Way of ORWarriOR. OrWarrior means “Warrior of Light”, and the concept will be about the battle between light and darkness. The album will have a different sound than Mabool. Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree will be producing the album.[4]
Logos
Orphaned Land has had three changes to their logos; the original seen on the Sahara album, the one that can be seen on the El Norra Alila album and was graphically enhanced in Mabool to give it a 3D effect, and, with the release of ORWarriOR, a new logo has been made and will most likely be on its cover. Their new logo is being displayed on their Official MySpace site. Also, the album Mabool has its own logo, a concept triangle seen on their official site and references to the concept triangle are in the starting song’s lyrics.
Discography
Demos
- The Beloved's Cry (1993)
EPs
Studio albums
- Sahara (1994)
- El Norra Alila (1996)
- Mabool (2004)
- ORWarriOR (2008) – work in progress
Videography
- “Ocean Land” (2004) − Mabool
- “Norra El Norra” (2004) − Mabool
Band line-up
Current members
- Kobi Farhi − Vocals and growls
- Yossi Saharon (Sassi) − Guitar, oud, saz, bouzouki
- Matti Svatitzki − Guitar
- Uri Zelcha − Bass
- Shlomit Levi − Female vocals
- Yatziv Caspi − Percussion
Former members
- Sami Bachar − Drums
- Eden Rabin − Keyboards, backing vocals (Gone since November 23rd, 2005.)
- Avi Diamond − Drums (Gone since August 10th, 2007)
- Itzik Levy − Keyboards
- Eran Asias − Drums
Featured musicians and other personnel
- Sahara album:
- Mabool album:
- Shlomit Levi − Yemenite female vocals
- Moran chorus − Female background chorus
- Avi Agababa − extra percussion
- The Never Ending Way of ORWarriOr (not yet released):
- Shlomit Levi − Yemenite female vocals
- Steven Wilson − Production
- Vladimir T. − Additional vocals
External links
- Official website
- Century Media Records site
- Holy Records site
- Official Orphaned Land MySpace
- Orphaned Land official Fan Club
