Orphaned Land

Orphaned Land is an Israeli oriental folk metal band influenced by doom metal and death metal. Their music blends oriental instruments and vocals. Orphaned Land started out as a death metal band. In 1994, the album Sahara mixed death metal and traditional oriental music for the first time. In their second album, El Norra Alila (1996), Orphaned Land deepened this blend further, adding traditional Jewish songs (piyyutim) and Arabic melodies. This album conveys a message of peaceful coexistence between Jews and Muslims. The band enjoys strong success in some Arab countries. The third album, Mabool (2004), takes as its theme the Bible and the story of Noah. Worked on for seven years, it reaches a high level of interweaving between the metal elements and the traditional melodies.