A track-by-track breakdown of “Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs”, the new album from Israeli progressive folk metallers Orphaned Land, can be seen below. The disc was released on January 26 via Century Media.
“Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs”, which features artwork by Valnoir, was mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren. Its release will be followed by an extensive European tour with In Vain, Subterranean Masquerade and Aevum. Dates and locations are listed below.
Orphaned Land vocalist Kobi Farhi told Loud TV about “Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs”: “We are back to concept albums. Concept albums give you the opportunity to be diverse, progressive. This is the best way for us to do albums. I think that in this album, we wanted to make a combined album of [2013’s] “All Is One”, which was more upfront, and the concept and progressive music of [2004’s] “Mabool” and [2010’s] “ORWarriOR”. We thought that if we make a combination of them, it will be the best Orphaned Land album [yet].
“You always need to find a way, how do you find a new concept after you did music for 26 years?” he continued. “I didn’t know what to do. The band was already writing music, and they told me, ‘Kobi, what’s going on?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know — I don’t have it.’ I need to find an inspiration and to find a story to be stronger than before. I don’t want to repeat. I don’t want ‘All Is One II’, or ‘Mabool Number Two’. I want to find something new. So, looking at the world and finding the story of ‘[Allegory Of] The Cave’ by Plato was my main inspiration, and it took me a while, but from the moment I found it, it was very fast and very quick and very intense work. Once I have the concept, we know how to fix the music in the album.”
In a separate interview with The Offering webzine, Farhi called “Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs” “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,” he said. “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.”
Our review of “Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs” can be found here.
“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
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.
Upcoming Dates
Feb 23 – Wacken Winter Nights Festival, Wacken, Germany
Feb 24 – Willemeen, Arnhem, Netherlands
Feb 25 – Turock, Essen, Germany
Feb 26 – the Underworld Camden, London, United Kingdom
Feb 27 – Petit Bain, Paris, France
Feb 28 – Le Ferrailleur, Nantes, France
Mar 02 – Sala Copernico, Madrid, Spain
Mar 03 – Sala Boveda, Barcelona, Spain
Mar 04 – Secret place, Montpellier, France
Mar 06 – Jungel, Koln, Germany
Mar 07 – Bi NUU, Berlin, Germany
Mar 08 – Randal Club, Bratislava, Slovakia
Mar 09 – Flying Circus, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Mar 10 – Zet Te Pe, Cracow, Poland
Mar 11 – Dürer Kert, Budapest, Hungary
Mar 13 – Backstage Halle, Munich, Germany
Mar 14 – Dagda Live Club, Voghera, Italy
Mar 15 – Jailbreak Live Club, Rome, Italy
Mar 16 – The Manoir Pub, Saint-Maurice, Switzerland
Mar 17 – Galvanik Zug, Zug, Switzerland
Mar 18 – CHEZ PAULETTE, Pagney Derriere Barine, France
Apr 13 – Opera Club, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Apr 14 – Zil Arena, Moscow, Russia
Apr 20 – Pagan Metal Horde vol 3, Osaka, Japan
Apr 21 – Pagan Metal Horde Vol 3, Tokyo, Japan
Apr 22 – Pagan Metal Horde vol 3, Tokyo, Japan
Apr 25 – Unsung Prophets & Dead Meesiahs Official launch show, Binyamina, Israel
Jun 15 – Z! Live Rock Festival, Zamora, Spain
Jun 17 – Festival des Cultures Juives, Paris, France
Aug 11 – Catton Park, Saint Helens, United Kingdom
Weblinks: Website / Facebook / Myspace / Twitter
Video (audio) for ‘Chains Fall To Gravity’
Lyric video for ‘We Do Not Resist’
Video for ‘Like Orpheus’