ORPHANED LAND PREPARE NEW ALBUM
Steve Hackett joins the Middle Eastern collective on philosophical recording.
Orphaned Land are putting the finishing touches to their seventh studio album, which will be released through Century Media on January 26. Unsung Prophets
And Dead Messiahs sees the band returning to their roots under the watchful eye of Swedish producer Jens Bogren (Opeth/Katatonia).
“I feel we’re going back to the progressive vibes we had on [2004’s] Mabool,” says frontman Kobi Farhi. “Some of the songs are very long and there are longer guitar solos. We’ve gone back to what feels natural. The album is almost like a soundtrack, and the message is very ambitious – it’s a very strong protest album.”
According to Farhi, the concept has been inspired by Plato’s Allegory Of The Cave. “I use a lot of motifs from that story to show that we are choosing to stay in our caves, even though we’ve advanced in so many other aspects, like technology. Throughout history, whenever an important revolutionary comes along, he or she ends up being assassinated. Look at Socrates, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, even Yitzhak Rabin. We still deal in weapons and wars, and we still can’t figure out how to live in peace. It was Albert Einstein who said, ‘The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.’”
Farhi sang on Steve Hackett’s The Night Siren, and the guitarist has returned the favour with a passionate guest appearance on Unsung Prophets….
Orphaned Land will be playing Europe next year. For more, visit www.orphaned-land.com. NRS