Orphaned Land

Orphaned Land stands among the planet's most distinctive and pioneering heavy metal acts, drawing deeply on Middle Eastern traditions to enrich the band's core extreme metal approach. The Israeli group weaves together global musical idioms and longstanding conceptual frameworks, merging philosophical outlooks and religious motifs into a layered, shape-shifting sound built from metallic foundations, assorted folk elements, and venerable instruments such as the saz, kanun, oud, and bouzouki, along with twenty distinct percussion devices, six languages, and an expansive vocal palette that unites cultural strands and iconography drawn from Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Although personnel have shifted repeatedly, the recordings that began with the initial demo The Beloved's Cry and the notice generated by 1994's Sahara through 1996's El Norra Alila allowed the musicians to craft an unmistakable identity from death metal, progressive metal, hard rock, and the regional Middle Eastern influences that constitute their heritage. That identity reached full realization with the widely acclaimed 2004 release Mabool and the Steven Wilson-produced The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR, achievements rivaled solely by a live presentation that consistently leaves crowds exhausted yet clamoring for encores at festivals and stadiums worldwide.

Established in 1991 as Resurrection, the band attracted early notice for its unconventional approach through the 1992 demo The Beloved's Cry, which later appeared on CD in 2000, before signing with France's Holy Records and delivering the respected albums Sahara in 1994 and El Nora Alila in 1996. The lineup at the time included Kobi Farhi on vocals, Yossi Saharon on lead guitar, Matti Svatitzki on rhythm guitar, Uri Zelcha on bass, Itzik Levy on keyboards, and Sami Bachar on drums, yet internal tensions together with geographic distance from the broader international rock circuit eventually led to a split. After six years of inactivity, the members reconvened in 2001 for several concerts and a single acoustic performance; the strong public response revealed that earlier releases had steadily cultivated a substantial following across the Arab world, prompting a lasting reformation. With Eden Rabin joining on keyboards and Avi Diamand on drums, the group secured a new contract with Century Media and issued its anticipated third album, Mabool (The Story of the Three Sons of Seven), in 2004. The conceptual successor The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR followed in 2010, produced and mixed by Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson. All Is One, released in 2013, marked the debut of guitarist Chen Balbus, who had succeeded founding member Matti Svatitzki the previous year, while the 2018 conceptual work Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs, mixed, engineered, and produced by Jens Bogren, included a guest contribution from Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett.