Introducing ourselves.

[Postmodernist]

Hi,

I think it would be nice if all forum participants (and visitors) introduced themselves briefly. E.g.
- your native culture, language,
- country, age, name,
- interests,
- when and how did you learn about Orphaned Land,
- which OL songs/albums you like most of all,
- what musical instruments do you play,
- what other music than OL's kosher-halal metal you adore
etc. - anything you considering worth writing about yourself.

I think this thread is going to be especially useful to new people here, however the "older" participants can also learn something new about each other here.

PS: Please no off-topics here. You can use Private Mesaging system intensively to discuss anything not very relevant, e.g. communicating with people from your country.


Sorry for being such a "control freak", I have experience of moderating a 500-participants totally international online community, and I learnt how quickly a thread can become a complete mess (very difficult to follow and scaringly huge) because of endless offtopic comments.

 

[Postmodernist]

I will start, if nobody minds

Well, I'm an Earthling of homo sapiens specie, living on the 3rd planet of Solar system.
Politically, I'm kinda true socialism+ecoanarchism supporter. I'm against the ideas of "states", "nations" and "races", against wars, against corrupted/authoritarian/totalitarian/militarist/imperialist governments, against clericality and political agendas in religions, against states' ideologization, for tolerance for individual traits and preferences and for respect for diversity, for peace and crosscultural cooperation and mixing, for liberal and progressive branches of popular systems of believes.

I adore arts, all world cultures, religions and mythologies and worship music.
I've travelled much across post-Soviet space (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine, Afghanistan), and currently I'm studying in Scandinavia.

My musical preferences (random order):
Liquid Tension Experiment, J. S. Bach, Tony Levin, Jordan Rudess, W. A. Mozart, John Petrucci, A. Vivaldi, Mike Portnoy, Dream Theater, California Guitar Trio, Niacin, Joe Satriani, L. Beethoven, Rakhmaninov, Haggard, Sviridov, Estatic Fear, ApocalypticA, Wagner, Yanni Hrisomallis, Loreena McKennitt, Steve Morse, Wolf Hoffman, Orphaned Land, Sepultura (90ies), Secret Garden, Pantera, Jesse Cook, Bugotak, Jacques Loussier Trio, The Cranberries, Shlomit Levi, Kyrgyz music, ethno/folk/tribal/world music, new-age/neo-classics, ethereal, flamenco, UneXpect, Emilia Autumn, Diablo Swing Orchestra, symphonic/atmospheric doom, thrash metal, art rock, jazz/fusion, avantgarde metal, arrangements of classics, Forest Stream, Altan Urag, Rodrigo y Gabriela, tributes to Metallica, symphonic, folk and jazz arrangements of metal, Vas, Irfan, Kopruler, Myriads, Chalice, Iron Maiden, sXe hardcore, Frozen Throne, Arcane Grail, Narsilion, Adorned Brood, Dead Can Dance, Blackmore's Night, oriental metal, Gregorian, Armenian music, Persian music, Kevin Moore, Arabic music, Yemeni Music, Jewish music, The Doors, The Moon and The Nightspirit, God Is An Astronaut, Bryats Band, Beliy Den', Richard Cheese, The Merlons of Nehemiah, Morgenstern, Yasmin Levy, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Graveworm, Therion, Shroud of Bereavement, Azam Ali, Rise Against, Bol'shoy Detskiy Hor, Räfven, klezmer music, Atargatis, Dolapdere Big Gang, Aghora, Amaseffer, Shostakovich, Australian indigenous music, African indigenous music, post-rock, intellectual dance music, athentic medieval music, shamanic music, Sami music, Siberian music, throat singing, opera (Verdi, Bizet), Bolivar music, Serbian music, Macedonian music, Bosnian music, authentic music of India, Buddha lounge, meditative music, Corde Oblique, Adygean music, Yasmin Levy, reggae, Bob Marley ...

I found out about OL merely by occasion: Once in 2004 I was browsing through a post-Soviet mp3 database online looking for "doom/gothic metal" songs with the keyword "instrumental", and I found "Rainbow (instrumental)" from Mabool. BTW, on the same day I discovered my absolute favorite Estatic Fear (song "Chapter VIII: Unisono Lute Instrumental").

My fav. OL albums are "El Norra Alila" and "Sahara". Songs: Ornaments Of Gold, Sapari, Beloved's Cry, Thee By The Father I Pray, Building the Ark, El Meod Na'Ala, Norra El Nora, Joy, Whisper My Name When You Dream, Seasons Unite, Orphaned's Medley, The Birth Of The Three, Flawless Belief.

I can sing in baritone and growling voices and try to play any instrument that comes to my hands.


PS: I'm 25, I lead a straightedge lifestyle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SXe), I speak Russian, English, Ukrainian, some French, some Kyrgyz.

 

[Messiakh]

Hehehe, I like the idea!
okay here goes...

My name is Mahmoud, it's pronounced Maah-Mood. It's an arabic name and one of the names given to the Islamic Prophet Muhammed (PBUH).

21 years old, I live in Bahrain, orignally persian.

-I know Arabic, English and Persian so far. I also know a little french, and I started studying Hebrew lately.
I also want to learn Hindi in the very soon future.

-Interests hmm... I'd say I'm very much into world cultures, religions, spirituality and arts in all forms.

-I remember at one point I used to listen to Folk Metal from northern/scanadavian countries, I started imagining Folk Metal with Middle Eastern influences and shared my idea with a friend, he told that such a band does exist and introduced me OL.

-My favorite OL album would be El Norra Alila, and that is because it has the most Oriental influences in it.
My fav OL songs of all time would be Find Yourself Discover God, Birth of The Three, Of Temptation Born and Ocean Land.

-I play Oud and an old recorder flute that I once brought cheap lol. I tried to play the guitar but I couldn't go any further so I gave up.

-My favorite metal bands after OL would be Melechesh and Rudra.

-Err I don't have anything else to say here, just express my love for OL

Salam Alikom/Shalom Alechem.

 

[Chanakya]

Hi, I am Ananth from Bangalore, India.
I am 17 years old and in the final year of High School [ grade XII ]

I'd consider myself an atheistical Hindu, sometimes tending to be an agnostic. As most of you all know, Hinduism is more than just a religion and also encompasses lots of philosophies, some of which I believe in. And whether I like it or not, in India, I am a hindu, even if choose not to associate myself with any organized religion. And I don't associate myself with any, although I wholely respect them all.
Most Indians are atleast bilingual, mostly trilingual. I shall not go into the specifics but the language I know the best is English. I speak Kannada and Telugu as well, with the former being the provincial language of my state and I know a bit of Deutsch.

Politically; Although I haven't yet cast my first vote, I do know a bit about politics. Although I would have expressed myself differently and despite the fact that I hate saying stuff like 'same as above', most of whatever I wanted to say, has been explicitly stated by Postmodernist.

I am interested in music, non-commercialized movies, journalism, religion [Interestingly, although I don't like the concept of organized religions], cultures from across the globe and Mythology as well.

I stumbled upon Orphaned Land entirely by chance over almost 2 years ago. I was searching for music under folk, metal, middle east and Norra El Norra was the first song that popped up

El Meod Na'Ala, Ornaments of Gold, The Kiss of Babylon, Halo Dies, Ocean Land, The Calm Before The Storm, Beloved's Cry and Norra El Norra are some of my favourite songs. Mabool was my favourite album, maybe not as innovative as the earlier albums but it was their first album for me and I am still blown away, listening to it in its entierity every day for a long time.

Apart from most forms of metal and rock, I am into :

Ali Farka Toure, Ofra Haza, Indian Carnatic as well as Hindustani classical music [Mainly Sarod, Santur, Sitar, flute, Veena and Violin], Qawwali moreso the works of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. As a kid I used to dig Abba and I listen to them occaisonally now too. I listen to Western Classical as well and I really liked Vanessa Mae's album Choreography which is the ultimate non-metal album in which a wide variety of styles are incorporated.

I sing and I am a guitar player. I try growling with little success too

I've been exploring different styles of music and this place has very knowledgeable people and I have learnt a lot thanks to you folks.

 

[Postmodernist]

Thanks for sharing fellows.
Now I really feel like we have an international community of Warriors of Light and Reason here

[a small offtopic remark]: I think you would like the following movies:

=> "Baraka" - a legendary new-age movie about cultures, religions, nature and human societies.

=> "Zeitgeist" and "Zeitgeist: Addendum" - fascinating neo-political movies. I really don't know whether they reflect the truth, but some aspects of these movies are breathtakingly realistic.

You can get these 3 movies at http://torrentz.com
"Z" and "Z:A" are even spread for free over Internet.

 

[Morticia NL.]

Nice to read all of your stories. I'll give the incentive for some of the 'old' members of this forum. Even though the people who have been around this place for some time already know the story.
AGE???? you don't ask a lady for her age. Let's say I'm in the same league as Kobi and Yossi.
Name; Nathalie, I'm from Holland
I'm to lazy to write about politics and stuff like that. traveled a nice bit around and so I don't care much for race, religion and politics anymore. I believe more in meeting every person with the same smile and open mind, then you see that even the most remote cultures can find common interests. This way you look more at the point you have in common with others, instead of staring at differences. This is one of the reasons I am a big supporter of Orphaned Land; they spread positivity and being open minded.

Languages; Dutch (duh), English, French, German and I've started to learn Hebrew ( not much progress at the moment)
Interests; art, poetry, literature and foremost traveling and metal music ofcourse. Too many bands to name here really- I don't want to bore you guys. Next to metal I also love all kinds of oriental folkore stuff and even classical music, opera and Sarah Brightman.

My OL story; got interested in them when I read an article about the band in some small underground metalzine around the time of the release of the Sahara album. Had to go to a lot of trouble to obtain the album- remember we are talking pre internet days here! After the first song I was hooked.
Kinda lost track of them after El norra alila, because I thought they were finished. Then came Mabool and I couldn't believe this masterpiece. Happened to travel with some friends to Turkey for a show in 2004 ( Epica played in the same fest in Istanbul as OL) and about a week before going I checked the bill. Then I discovered OL were going to play there too and I couldn't believe my luck! And to make the luck complete I happened to meet the band. To cut a long story short; we became friends and I traveled to many countries to see them play. And I also became a regular visitor of Israel. Then I even met my boyfriend through the band ( get out yer tissues- it's a tearjerker) BC-A was a regular visitor at this forum and I met him at a show in Italy. We worked together on the first official fansite of the band. It is closed for now, but there will be a new page- we ended up living here in Holland ( Yannick is originally from France)

I could easily state Orphaned Land has changed my life. Their music,their friendship, the traveling around the world with them and all the special friends/ fans (they call them the Orphaned family) I got to meet along the way has altered and shaped my way of seeing the world. It makes me feel that I am a truly blessed person
I am very grateful to the band for all they give and try to spread their music and message wherever and whenever I can.

 

[CorpseDeception]

Melody (17), I'm from California, near wine country here. My only language at the moment is English but I hope to one day learn many, many more. I'm working on Spanish, but it isn't really going anywhere =(. Ethnically, I'm...a lot of things. My ancestors have been from all over Europe. From my father's side I'm mostly Welsh and Dutch. From my mother's I'm mostly Swedish and Irish. I'm also several types of native American.

I love music and literature. I've been accepted into CalPoly San Luis Obispo's aerospace engineering program and I'm really excited to get started on that. I'll get jet fuel! I want to design consumer airliners because I want to have no part in reating weapons. I'm committed to non-violence. I also draw. I'm getting better at shading and worse with faces =D. I can draw dinosaur faces alright, though.

Politics... I'm /very/ liberal. If I were old enough to vote (which I will be soon), I'd vote green. Democrats are too conservative. I'm still hoping that California will get gay marriage back. It was one of the worst nights of my life when 54% of Californians voted to strip the rights away from others.

I learned about Orphaned Land a little over a year ago. I got a friend request from them on myspace, so I went to their site to check the genre, didn't listen to their music, and didn't think about them for months. Then one day, I went back to their page and heard Ocean Land and fell in love. To date, I only have Mabool, but I will fix that little issue, have no fear!

I play percussion, trombone, trumpet, and harmonica. I used to be in my school's marching band and drumline, but that is over now so I'm learning set. The transition from marching to set is kind of strange and I have to keep reminding myself that I can't treat toms the same way I'd play my tenors. I can sing, too. I just don't usually sing in public.

I like cross-genre music mostly. I love Opeth (and OL, of course!). Porcupine Tree. 3. Symphony X. Cynic. Many, many more. I like fusion, too. And death metal. And some techno. Return to Forever. Rush. Yes. Daath.

I have a cat and my physics teacher annoys me to no end. He assigned me a misbehavior essay for reading in class. I wrote it, but later talked my into not having to turn it in. My teacher has no sense of humor and I would have gotten a referral. His expression while reading it might have been worth it, though.

I tutor kids in math and I'm the leader of four clubs (art club, literature club [which I founded], gay-straight alliance, and anime club). I thought about starting a progressive rock club, but didn't want to have to deal with kids who have no clue what prog is and insist that they do.

I'm close to my family and just realized that I'm rambling. Good night, all!

 

[Tabletwister]

I'm Christos, an elder in here. I breathe Greek air and i'm an Orphanholic!

I first found out and contacted OL in their demo years...we changed a couple of letters with Yossi, trading our bands demo tapes and stuff and did an interview with Matti for my underground fanzine at that time. 'Sahara' came to my hands after trading some of my band's demos with some 'Holy records' cds with Philippe. I got 'El Norra Alila' in the same way as soon as it was released.
First time i met the guys in OL in person was at 'RTN Festival 2004' in Turkey which was also the only reason that i've attended the festival. Good thing is that i've also had the luck of meeting some OL fans from Turkey, Israel, Jordan and Austria so, cheers guys wherever you are!!! Next day after OL's performance we visited the guys at their hotel, drunk all together a wondeful Turkish coffee and hang out together with Yossi nearly all day long.
Not long time passed and i became the webmaster of the official OL website for about 2 years or so. That was of course after i received the blessings from the band and the only 'Captain Of The Webark", my beloved brother 'Burak', creator of the official OL webark!
Last time i've met with the guys in OL was the first time they performed under Greek sky in 2005 which we shared two magical and unforgettable Orphaned days in Greek Land!!!

Other than that...i have the most amazing wife in the entire known world as my personal angel in life that gave birth one year ago to our life's miracle...our adorable little girl...

 

[gestinannan]

Hello,my name is Gülnur and i am from Istanbul/Turkey and i am 23 years old.
The very first time i heard about orphaned land was via my sister,she gave me mabool cd for my 20th birthday.She told the music store guy that i am a devoted tea party,dead can dance fn so he suggested her to buy the cd,anyways from then on orphaned land has become an obsession to me in a way,as the music that OL do is very close to the way i see the world.I was born into a muslim family,of greek&georgian heritage and is always interested in mesopotamian cultures&religions (literally obsessed with the sumerians,everything about them sounds so terrific),and also being a habitant of istanbul, all of these and some other reasons i think everything that ever existed in my world is pretty much about fusing the cultures within.I think thats why i have abondoned my good old tea party for the orphaned land,the way they play,the melody and the lyrics do collide all the worlds i believe in.Also Kobi farhi's voice sort of reminds me of something very familiar,something mystical,something that sounds so familiar(but i dont know what really is this)
Other than orphaned land,i am a big fan of The tea party,dead can dance,oum kalsoom,fayrouz,nusret fatih ali han, and i also like our lady peace,moist,i mother earth,therion,tiamat,burzum,melechesh,and yeah lately i listen to amaseffer a lot and the list goes on.
Languages: Turkish (of course),English,a little bit of german and russian.
Interests: Cooking and cuisines,Mesopotamian religious systems,sumerology,socialogy,feminist economics,social economics,mythology,i am also interested in LBGt matters and activist for this matter,i love movies (a big fan of kubrick,almodovar,jarmusch,f.akın,amenabar,luis bunuel and f.ozon)
politics: although i am a political science student,i am not interested in daily politics,as i find daily politics to be extremely manipulative.But i do name myself as a neo marxist,an atheist,a feminist and a pro gay,i believe in multiculturalism and tolerance for others.
my favorite orphaned land songs are el meod naala,shir hashirim,like fire to water,ocean land,of temptation born and also the medley is great.and yeah i should also count Aldiar al mukadisa as well,as its one of the few songs all of my family members do adore without understanding even a word of hebrew.

 

[Luthien32]

My turn:

I'm from Barcelona (Spain), and I speak Catalan, Spanish and English (or I try).
My real name is Esther, and I'm 30... no problem with telling my age
I'm interested in literature, art, music (mainly metal but not only), language(s)...

How I knew about Orphaned Land? Well, let me tell you that until 25 years-old I had heard no real metal at all, when I was introduced to it and got more and more interested. I knew Therion, my favourite band from that moment, and a Therion fan told me about OL. I heard it an fell in love, so simple! And I think it's the only band I can hear with some growls and I even like them! (perhaps Haggard too, but not so much). Ah! And my favourite album and song is El Norra Alila.

Some bands: Therion, OL (of course), Rage, Haggard, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Judas Priest, The Gathering, The Sisters of Mercy, Amasseffer, Blind Guardian, Apocalyptica, Motörhead, Celtic music, some Catalan rock, some Spanish rock...

I consider myself as an open-minded person... I don't know what more to say!!

 

[Folklore]

Welcome to the forum, Esther!

 

[Ester93]

Hello , My name is Svetlana , I live in Russia . I'm 15 years old .
I found out about Orphaned Land in april 2008 . My best friend told me about the Orphaned's show in Moscow, she was impressed ! I'd never heard about this band before but I decided to find out who these guys were . When I was listening to "Mabool" first time I couldn't believe that such music could be ! I fell in love with it . I couldn't stop myself from listening ! My favourite songs are Norra El Norra , Ocean Land , the calm before the flood , storm still rages inside . My favourite album is "Mabool".
These guys are so talented ! I think Kobi has the greatest voice ever ! I've got so much to say , this music makes me wanna think about life , God , soul .... This is the most important thing . I can talk about Orphaned land all the time , but I think that's enough =)
I like all art forms , I like travelling , I can't live without my best friend , and I love my family .
Also I love Lacuna Col , [AMATORY] , arabian music ...
I am open-minded person , freedom is very important for me .... I am going to work as a journalist so I hope to get to know this world better =)

 

[Postmodernist]

Dobro pojalovat' na forum, Sveta.
Omg, I wish I were listening to OL when I was 15
And I totally agree about Kobi's voice - I'm collecting all kinds of metal for around 10 years, and I can tell that I never ever heard another male vocals as rich and versatile as Kobi's.

 

[Ester93]

Thank you so much , thats very nice of you =)
Yeah , his voice is unbelievable . I'd like to see OL some day ))

 

[Morticia NL.]

Nice story Ester- welcome here!

 

[Ollo-San]

Hello

My name is Olivier (nickname: Ollo-San, Ollo, Zitouni) I'm almost 21 year old and I'm French from France (you know this country where there are strikes all the time )
I also speak french, english, (no need to speak about my skills in german ) and I learn arabic at school (such a difficult language but really interesting)

mmmh what are my interests: I'm found of Middle-East and oriental music. I love beer and whisky (my favourite drinks, I'm becoming an expert for whisky: Talisker, Lagavulin, Springbank, Edradour,...) please don't mind this
I'm the head of an association (URIGREEN) based on the sensitization of people to the environment

I discovered Orphaned Land with El NORra Alila about 10 years ago. NO it was Sahara my cousin gave me an old tape. I can't choose any song or album. They are all different and great. Nevertheless El Meod Na'la and the Beloved Cry have a special signification for me.

I play air-guitar and air-drum.

OL and Anathema are my two favourite bands. I like Arcturus, Moonspell, Gojira, Septic Flesh and many more .

PS: I love Yossi hahahahha

 

[Miltbrand]

I´m Kjeld (pronounced Kel), 30 years old, from Denmark

Can´t remember how I learned about Orphaned Land, but it might have been from a compilation cd or something like that. First I got Mabool, then the other albums shortly thereafter. Can´t choose a favorite album, because they´re special in their own way.
Favorite songs are probably Ocean Land and Meod na´ala, but there are so many to choose from.

Interests:
- Metal (obviously), apart from OL favorite bands are Anthrax (serious collector), The Gathering, Therion, Candlemass, Amorphis, My Dying Bride, Sentenced, Darkthrone, etc.
- History of war/military.
- Football (the part where you sit in the sofa watching it, beer in hand )

Job: Rejoined the army a month ago. Now in a signals regiment.

I speak Danish (surprise!), and English. I understand German but speak it badly, I know enough french and spanish to say the most important words: "dos cervezas, por favor", "deux bieres, sil vous plait" , i can read and understand some Dutch. In Pashtu I know how to say hello in a polite manner, and to tell people to go away in a not so polite manner.

Oh, and a thing that might become a new interest of mine: Just had my first 2 hour Krav Maga lesson a few days ago!

 

[Wayward son]

I think it would be nice if all forum participants (and visitors) introduced themselves briefly

Uhm... i think i did it some years ago...

- your native culture, language, country, age, name

I'm Stefano, from Italy, i speak italian ) ), a little franch and a dwarfish english... and can understand also a few italian dialect.

- interests,

Nothing in particular and everything in general.

- when and how did you learn about Orphaned Land,

I found a used copy of mabool in a shop, something like 12 years ago. The blue mosque on the cover was saying "BUY ME! BUY ME! BUY ME!", and i did and ejoyed.

- which OL songs/albums you like most of all,

Maybe Mabool is their best album so far

- what musical instruments do you play,

Once i used to play bass guitar, now i sing while i'm under a shower.

About music, I like artist like Voivod, Psychotic Waltz, Faith No More, Orchestra Di Piazza Vittorio, Dredg, Tool, OfflagaDiscoPax, Marta Sui Tubi, System Of A Down, Gonin-Ish, OSI, Pure Reason Revolution, Crysis, Cynic, Devil Doll, Skyclad, In Extremo, Samael, Saviour Machine, Daniele Sepe, Stolen Babies, Unexpect, Diablo Swing Orchestra, Devin Townsend or Rabih Abou-Khalil

Of course I'm a devoted of old crap like BLACK SABBATH, Queen, Zeppelin, Purple, Maiden, Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and the uk's or italian prog rog.

 

[BC-A]

I found a used copy of mabool in a shop, something like 12 years ago. The blue mosque on the cover was saying "BUY ME! BUY ME! BUY ME!", and i did and ejoyed.

Stop the grappa man!

 

[Wayward son]

Stop the grappa man!

Obviously, I can travel in time.

And I tell you something: ORwarriOR is a masterpiece but, trust me, Ghandi Business (their seventh album, in 2014) will be a lot better! Maybe their best work.



Do you wanna drink with me?