Orphaned Land

Orphaned Land
Orphaned Land performing at Wacken Open Air in August 2010
Background information
Also known as	Resurrection
Origin	Petah Tikva, Israel
Genres	Progressive metal, folk metal, Middle East music
Years active	1991–present
Labels	Century Media
Associated acts	Mahavatar
Website	www.orphaned-land.com
Members
Kobi Farhi Uri Zelcha Yossi Sa'aron Sassi Matti Svatizky Shlomit Levi Matan Shmuely
Past members
Sami Bachar Eden Rabin Itzik Levy Yatziv Caspi Eran Asias

Orphaned Land is an Israeli progressive metal band, formed in 1991, that combines Death/doom, Jewish and Arabic influences.

History

In 1992, the band changed its name from the original Resurrection^[1] to Orphaned Land. Orphaned Land fuse progressive, doom, and death metal as well as Middle-Eastern folk music and Arabic traditions in a form of Oriental metal. Each album has some concept related to two extremes: 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, such as "El Norra Alila" ("Illustrious God"), based on a poem sung during Yom Kippur as a plea of forgiveness. It also included songs with traditional oriental Jewish piyyut and Arabic melodies. The album explored the themes of light and darkness, as well as conveying the message of commonality between the three main Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islam, and Christianity).^[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), released in 2004, was seven years in the making. It 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) named after Mount Ararat. Despite their songs drawing on biblical themes, the band have said that they are not religious.^[4]

On January, 2010, Orphaned Land released the follow-up to Mabool, entitled The Never Ending Way of ORWarriOR. OrWarrior means "Warrior of Light," and the concept is the battle between light and darkness. The album has a different sound than Mabool, and was mixed by Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree.^[5] The first single from the CD was entitled Sapari and was put on MySpace with two other tracks, Vayehi OR and Disciples of the Sacred Oath II.^[6] In early 2011 ORWarriOR was rated the Metal Storm #1 progressive metal album of 2010 by users with 421/1130 total votes.^[7]

In 2008, Orphaned Land was featured in the documentary Global Metal, a film by the creators of Metal: A Headbanger's Journey.^[8]

On May 22, 2010, Orphaned Land performed as the opening act to Metallica's show in Israel. Following this, the band went on a festival tour in the summer of 2010, promoting their latest album The Never Ending Way of ORWarriOR with appearances at such festivals as Wacken Open Air, Summer Breeze Open Air, Sonisphere Festival, Gods of Metal, Rock Hard Festival and more. After the summer festival tour, the band will go on a North American tour in support of Katatonia, along with Swallow the Sun. This will be followed by a tour of Europe supporting Amorphis along with Ghost Brigade.

Orphaned Land has performed in Riviera 2011, the inter-collegiate fest organized by Vellore Institute of Technology University(VIT), Vellore(Tamil Nadu), India on February 1, 2011. That was their first visit to India.

They performed on June 19, 2011, at the French Metal Festival Hellfest held in Clisson, near Nantes.

Discography

Demos

• The Beloved's Cry (1993)

EPs

• The Calm Before the Flood (2004)
• Promo Split MCD (2005) – (with Sentenced)
• Ararat (2005)

Studio albums

• Sahara (1994)
• El Norra Alila (1996)
• Mabool (2004)
• The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR (2010)

Videography

Music videos

• "Ocean Land" (2004) – Mabool
• "Norra El Norra" (2004) – Mabool
• "Sapari" (2010) - "The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR"

Documentaries

• "A Heaven You May Create" - the Never Ending Way of Orwarrior Limited Edition DVD (2010)
• The Road To OR-Shalem (2011)^[9]

Band members

Current members

• Kobi Farhi – leading chants, growls, narrations, choir & backing vocals (1991–present)
• Yossi Sassi (Sa'aron) – lead electric & acoustic guitars, oud, saz, bouzouki, chumbush, piano (1991–present)
• Matti Svatitzki – rhythm electric & acoustic guitars (1991–present)
• Uri Zelcha – electric, acoustic & fretless bass (1991–present)
• Matan Shmuely - drums, percussion (2007–present)

Former members

• Eden Rabin – keyboards, backing vocals (2001–2005)
• Yatziv Caspi – percussion (2004–2007)
• Avi Diamond - drums, percussion (2004–2007)
• Itzik Levy – keyboards, piano (1991–2000)
• Eran Asias – drums, percussion (2000–2004)
• Sami Bachar – drums, percussion (1991–2000)

Touring members

• Chen Balbus - guitars, backing vocals (2011–present)
• Shlomit Levi - female vocals (2004–present)
• Steven Wilson - keyboards (2010)

References

1. ^ "ORPHANED LAND MusicMight". http://www.musicmight.com/linkto/artist/{32CAE95D-2246-4F31-8562-6E4BE10. 
2. ^ "Welcome to the Ark of Orphaned Land". http://www.orphaned-land.com/default.php?language=en. 
3. ^ "www.orphaned-land.com/content.php?language=en&menu=the_band&section=concept&theme=seven". http://www.orphaned-land.com/content.php?language=en&menu=the_band&section=concept&theme=seven. 
4. ^ "http://squatneysteel.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/interview-matti-svatizky-orphaned-land/". http://squatneysteel.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/interview-matti-svatizky-orphaned-land/. 
5. ^ "Encyclopaedia Metallum - Orphaned Land". http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=2309. 
6. ^ "Orphaned Land Puts Up New Track on Myspace". AngryMetalGuy.com. January 5, 2010. http://www.angrymetalguy.com/?p=989. Retrieved 2010-01-05. 
7. ^ "Metal Storm Awards 2010 Progressive Metal". www.metalstorm.net. http://www.metalstorm.net/awards/categories.php?cat_id=16. Retrieved 2011-04-16. 
8. ^ "Orphaned Land - New Album On The Way: News @ metalstorm.ee". http://www.metalstorm.ee/events/news_comments.php?news_id=6956. 
9. ^ Orphaned Land - DVD Tracklist And Cover Revealed

External links

• Official website
• Century Media Records site
• Holy Records site
• Interview with Orphaned Land on avantgarde-metal.com (2010)
• An interview with Matti Svatitzki on Prog Sphere (2011)