Is Orphaned Land a religious band? (and other questions in preparation for a lecture)

[Berel Dov Lerner]

I teach philosophy at the Western Galilee College in Israel and I am trying to put together a lecture about Orphaned Land for the 4th Israeli Conference on Contemporary Spiritualities to be held at the University of Haifa in March. Please feel free to help me by commenting on any of these questions:

1) Are Orphaned Land's fans mostly only interested in their music, or do fans take the trouble to find out the meaning of their Hebrew and Arabic lyrics??

2) Is Orphaned Land concerned with religion itself (worship, faith, etc.) or does it borrow from various religious traditions simply in order to promote goodwill between people belonging to different faith communities?

3) Do you think of Orphaned Land as a Jewish/Muslim band, a Jewish band, an Israeli band, a Middle Eastern band, or simply as a Metal band?

Much thanks

 

[Postmodernist]

1. Primarily music. Of course I read translation of the lyrics - and in fact if you translate Jewish, Muslim and Christian prayers into one language you'll see they're all the same. The chants sound awesome and magical - no matter if it's Muslim azans, fragments of Torah, Gregorian/Choral prayers, Hinduist or Buddhist mantras, Pagan/Shamanic throat singing etc.

2. According to interviews, only Kobi has Judaism as his religion, and the rest of the band are agnostic. Their music is first of all progressive and death metal meets Middle Eastern ethnic music and religious chants. Their message is peace and understanding, and this message is what the world really lacks. However, OL's music is more than this message - it's an intricate creative synthesis of cultures and musical genres, full or melody, contrasts, emotions as well as metal drive, and hope.

3. Middle Eastern metal band. The guys are Israelis, however their music has spread far beyond Israel or Middle East, Orphaned Land is a global phenomenon now, and I'm sure some more bands from all over Middle East, from "Arab World", from Turkey and Southeast Asia will follow their example by blending metal and traditional/religious music artistically and harmoniously. Some will also promote the same message, too.

PS: I'm a hardcore atheist myself I just love cultural things attached to any world religions - architecture, music/chants, sculpture, imagery and visual arts, ornaments, ancient artifacts, mythologies. And blending cultures and approaches is what I find very cool - especially elements considered mutually exclusive. Like, blending Deep Purple with traditional Japanese music, arranging Metallica songs flamenco style, arranging Western classical music in Turkish/Arab way, rendering Metallica songs into Buddha lounge or Irish folk, mixing baroque classics with extreme metal, Catholic chants and organ in gothic metal interpretation etc.


PPS: this forum is rather dead than alive overall. I recommend that you contact Orphaned Land fans via FaceBook instead to get more answers.

 

[Morticia NL.]

1- I have been lucky enough to have the possibilty to interact with fans of this band in many countries face to face and also through the internet so I think I got a pretty clear picture. Most of them start with interest in the music purely and then go from there. For many of them- people outside from the ME- they are the first real introduction to Middle Eastern culture.
We often get questions in the fan site mail regarding the translation and meaning of lyrics. This was especially the case when they did the Quran parts for Disciples of the Sacred Oath II.

2- None of the band members are active when it comes to religion. Some of them have been in the past, but are no longer at present. They use the religious references mostly because they are also cultural references.
A lot of this is explained in the documentary which comes with the DVD the band has just released. I think you should watch that one for sure!
Next to that reading some post on the fan site of the band might be helpful as well.
http://www.orphaned-disciples.org/site/lang/en/

3- To me Orphaned Land are first of all a Middle Eastern band when I look to the music of the guys-talking about the instruments they use and the musical influences they drew from.
Next to that I would say Jewish comes 2nd, but although the two might seem a paradox to some people not familiar with Israel, I can say that having visited there often, it is clear that Israelis have many different backgrounds and nationalities in their heritage. So lots of them are very close to what most Europeans would regard as more Arab [Middle Eastern] culture. I am just making this point because I got from discussions with other fans that they regard Israel and Arab states to be worlds apart, also culturally speaking. But when you look at the people of Israel you will see that this is actually really not the case. As an Israeli this is something you know, but for many Europeans this comes as a shock.

Another important point is that a lot of fans from the Middle East (muslims, arabs) regard the band as their ambassador. That is something quite unique for a Jewish/ Israeli band. In conversations that I had with Jordanian, Egyptian and Iranians fans of OL (together!!!) they told me that they use Orphaned Land as some kind of codeword in their [musical] conversations. When other metal fans react in a positive way to the dropping the name of the band it means that this person is a free thinker and peace lover. This is a 'safe way' so as to speak to open conversation upon other 'forbidden topics'

I wish I would have visited here before my last trip to Israel. I would have been very interested to meet with you and offer my help.
Like Anton suggested, Facebook is a better place to gather information from fans although I think comments there are often shallow and the conversations here are much more in-depth and a good example of what interests the average fan of the band.
Oh well, I actually think that most people visiting this forum are not so average at all but still a good example of what drives people who like Orphaned Land.