Israel’s Orphaned Land is probably the only band from this country that has managed to succeed at building up a huge following among Muslims and Arabian people. These fans communicate freely via the band’s social networking pages, some of them even proudly bearing Orphaned Land tattoos, even though that puts them at huge risk in their home countries! Unfortunately, the ongoing political and military struggles still prevent Orphaned Land from playing in the home countries of its Arabian fans and friends. As recent movies like “A Headbanger’s Journey” and “Global Metal” (in which Orphaned Land was featured) showed: the loudest, heaviest and most controversial music on earth can act as a universal language, bridging between opposites and overcoming all the obstacles that exist in our hearts and minds. The African musician Fela Kuti once said: “music is the weapon of the future” – Orphaned Land is the living proof of that! With the band’s, fourth album, entitled “The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR”, an opus that took five years of hard work, Orphaned Land created an epic manifest beyond any political or religious agenda. Vocalist Kobi Farhi states: “As people that were born into the tragedy of our region, we have always been devoted to creating harmony between conflicts, a musical heaven on earth, a tango between God & Satan. Even in the album’s artwork we combined Hebrew and Arabic, regardless of the fight between Jews and Muslims. I found a Jordanian guy, specialized in calligraphic artwork. He took letters from Hebrew and Arabic and molded them in his art to create a symbol of peace. Same goes for our band photo, where we portrayed a synergy between the three monotheistic religions, that believe in the same God and yet, ridiculously have been killing each other for centuries “in the name of God” and turned the holy land into an orphaned land. Naturally we continued this idea of union on a musical level as well and the result is as always crazy, it’s a miracle – in our concerts: our Jewish fans sing in Arabic and our Muslim fans sing in Hebrew, brave friendships have spawned and our Middle Eastern metal music destroys all this political witchcraft we have been trapped in for so long. This is a musical journey of hope in lands of war, creating heaven on earth, building a new Jerusalem.”
Farhi was born in Jaffa, the southern, oldest part of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, an ancient port city in Israel. Modern Jaffa has a heterogeneous population of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. At a young age Farhi discovered oriental and world music through his family, which mixed with his rebellious love for Heavy metal music. He created ‘Orphaned Land in 1991 with his then High School friends. Since then, Farhi dedicated his life to the band, writing and singing songs. His main mission is to bring people and hearts together, from all countries and sectors of “the bleeding middle east/” Apart from ‘Orphaned Land’, Farhi founded a record label called ‘MDMA’, which distributed heavy metal and electronic music records to stores in Israel. In 2001 he left the Label, as Orphaned Land was growing bigger, playing its first show overseas, in Turkey. Until now, the band has played more than 45 countries worldwide, earning the title ‘Oriental Metal Pioneers’. Today, Farhi is considered one of the most beloved Israeli artists in Arab countries Farhi received three honorary awards for peace. From the Istanbul Commerce University, from the Mayor of Çankaya in Ankara, Turkey, and from the Turkish government’s official advisor, after a show the band played in the country, donating all incomes for the people affected by the 2011 Van Earthquake/ In 2014, Farhi won the ‘Global Metal Award’ for Orphaned Land given by Metal Hammer Magazine at the Golden Gods awards.
Yossi Sassi blends East with West, Rock with world music, melodic tunes with progressive passages, and traditional folk instruments with electric riffs. Sassi, signed to Warner Music/Verycords, has over 20 years of experience as a producer, composer-arranger and founding member of Orphaned Land. Yossi plays 17 different types of guitars and traditional instruments, and has been invited to play live and share the stage with artists such as Metallica, Marty Friedman, Steven Wilson, Yehuda Poliker, and others. Yossi Sassi is a first level endorsing artist of PRS Guitars, Engl Amps (de), Elixir Strings, and Electro-Harmonix. Yossi Sassi has cooperated and recorded with artists from Kuwait to Portugal. He has hundreds of global shows and major festivals under his belt, including approximately 100 shows in 30 countries performed in 2010. Unusual for a band from Israel, Orphaned Land has built a following among Muslims and Arabs. Founded in 1991, the band released the demo The Beloved’s Cry in 1992. The band was signed by Holy Records and Sahara (1994) and El Norra Alila (1996) were well-received by reviewers. Later the band signed with Century Media USA and released Mabool in 2004, garnering over 250,000 copies in sales. The band’s 2010 release, titled The Never Ending Way of ORWarriOR, was recommended by Kirk Hammett of Metallica in Metal Hammer magazine. On January 6, 2014, Sassi released an official statement in which he announced his decision to part ways with his life work in Orphaned Land, due to various reasons, and focus on “new dreams” and “creative, innovative, authentic music that unites people”. Since 2011, Yossi Sassi founded his own solo group, with musicians from various genres, including Ben Azar on guitars (jazz/fusion guitarist), Shay Ifrah on drums and Or Lubianiker (Project R’n’L, Marty Friedman) on bass guitar. In his solo work, Sassi merges rock with traditional folk music, blending instrumental pieces with melodic vocals. Yossi’s debut release as a solo artist was titled Melting Clocks. His solo work featuring musicians such as ex-Megadeth member Marty Friedman, this album incorporates traditional instruments such as saz, bouzouki, oud, cümbüş and others. In January 2014 Sassi announced the album Desert Butterflies, a conceptual piece, rich and diverse, continuing where he left off with his debut solo release, Melting Clocks, and the “oriental rock” genre he’s been pioneering and redefining. It includes musical collaborations with Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (Guns N’ Roses), Marty Friedman (ex-Megadeth), Mariangela Demurtas (Tristania), and more. Desert Butterflies was released in May 2014 worldwide, and welcomed with very positive reviews from leading industry magazines (“Truly progressive, truly original, demolishing boundaries …”– Prog Magazine’s Rich Wilson). The 3rd album, Roots and Roads, was released on May 25, 2016, receiving highly commendatory reviews from the media. Roots and Roads was submitted for the 2016 Grammy’s award consideration.