In order to promote Orphaned Land’s up – coming album “Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs“, Kobi Farhi checked in at Black Plastic in Dortmund and talked about his all time favourite albums and artists/records that inspired him.
The band’s new studio album, “Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs” will be released on January 26 via Century Media. Jens Bogren once again took over mixing and mastering duties of what turned out to be the band’s best and biggest production so far.
Orphaned Land recently released a lyric video and digital single for their new song ‘We Do Not Resist’, taken from the upcoming album.
Kobi Farhi explains, “After our first single ‘Like Orpheus’, it is time to present you the angry side of our new album. Growls, straight forward protest text against the fact that we do not resist. I won’t say too much, listen to it, read the lyrics. It’s a kick into your face.
“Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs” features a guest appearance of guitar virtuoso Steve Hackett as well as guest vocal appearances by no other than Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) and Tomas Lindberg (At The GatesS). The great album artwork was created by Valnoir.
Farhi told The Offering webzine about “Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs”: “This is a protest album, a very angry album that is based on the ‘Allegory Of The Cave’, which is something that was written by the Greek ancient philosopher Plato. He wrote this allegory as a story about the human behavior because the ancient Greeks, they killed the philosopher Socrates and Plato couldn’t understand how they could kill such a guy who was a gift to humanity, how could they kill someone with the knowledge and wisdom. Then he figured out something about humanity’s behavior, that they are living in a cave and they see shadows in the cave and these shadows are the only truths that they know and they don’t want to leave the cave and anyone who will try to take them out of the cave, they will kill him. We took this an allegory of today’s life. Every time that you see a revolutionary guy that came to humanity and tried to release them from the darkness, humanity has chosen to kill him. It could be Mahatma Gandhi for Indian people, or Martin Luther King [Jr. ] for Afro-Americans, or Che Guevara for South Americans and there are many, many more examples of revolutionary people being killed. We thought Plato is an ancient prophet in a way. He wrote this thing two-thousand five hundred years ago; this is like a prophecy. Those people who are revolutionaries, leaders, they are always ending up dead. They are like the dead messiahs in a way. This is a mirror to humanity to show them that we always blame religion or politicians, but it’s the people who do not change. It’s the people who prefer to stay in the darkness. This is a concept album and a very big protest that we have about it.”
To celebrate the release of “Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs”, the band will be touring Europe again February/March. Orphaned Land will be supported by In Vain, Subterranean Masquerade and Aevum. Dates & locations are listed below.
“Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs”
Track listing:
01. The Cave
02. We Do Not Resist
03. In Propaganda
04. All Knowing Eye
05. Yedidi
06. Chains Fall To Gravity
07. Like Orpheus
08. Poets Of Prophetic Messianism
09. Left Behind
10. My Brother’s Keeper
11. Take My Hand
12. Only The Dead Have Seen The End Of War
13. The Manifest – Epilogue
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Orphaned Land’s latest album “All Is One” was released in North America on June 25th 2013 [one day earlier internationally] via Century Media Records. The cover artwork for the follow-up to 2010’s “The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR” was created by the French artist Metastazis [Paradise Lost, As I Lay Dying, Sonne Adam, Watain] by perfectly incorporating the three biggest religious symbols into one piece of art.
“All Is One” was mixed by Jens Bogren [James Labrie, Devin Townsend Project, Opeth] and was recorded in three different countries: Israel, Turkey and Sweden. Ironically, these countries are Jewish, Muslim and Christian, respectively, which strengthens the Orphaned Land message of unity through music. Over 40 musicians were used to flesh out the sound of “All Is One”, including 25 choir singers and eight classical violin, viola and cello players from Turkey.
To read our review for “All Is One”, click here.
The current line-up consist of: Kobi Farhi – Vocals, Chen Balbus – Guitars, Idan Amsalem – Guitars, Uri Zelcha – Bass, Matan Shmuely – Drums.
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Lyric video for ‘We Do Not Resist’
Video for ‘Like Orpheus’