ORPHANED LAND Frontman Interviewed By PRI's 'The World'

February 4, 2011

PRI's "The World" recently conducted an interview with vocalist Kobi Farhi of Israeli progressive folk metal masters ORPHANED LAND.

"People stereotype heavy metal as something who is not the way it truly is, we are breaking all stereotypes," Farhi said. "Simply as that. Of music, of religion, of politics, of nationality: We are just here to break it."

Farhi wants you to look past his tattoos, all 11 of them, and try to understand why heavy metal speaks to him and to so many young people in the Middle East.

"I was a teenager and when I discovered metal, I felt this is the only true thing that I have discovered in this world," he said. "The only thing that was without masks."

Read more from PRI's "The World". An audio version of the story can be streamed using the audio player below.

ORPHANED LAND's December 9 and December 10, 2010 concerts at Reading 3 in Tel Aviv, Israel were professionally filmed and recorded for an upcoming DVD release. The Israeli progressive folk metal masters were joined at both shows by Steven Wilson of PORCUPINE TREE. Also appearing on December 9 was PARADISE LOST guitarist Greg Mackintosh; famous Israeli singer Yehuda Poliker performed with ORPHANED LAND on December 10. Poliker reportedly inspired the band to choose the name ORPHANED LAND from the lyrics of one of his songs.

ORPHANED LAND's latest album, "The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR", sold around 600 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at No. 80 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

"The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR" was released in Europe on January 25, 2010. Mixed by Steven Wilson, who is also responsible for several keyboard parts on the new CD, the effort — which was made available in the U.S. on February 9 via Century Media Records — is a sophisticated concept album which takes ORPHANED LAND's unique brand of exotic, heavy music to soaring new heights in terms of complexity and catchiness. The CD's artwork was created by Zen Two and Native.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).