Orphaned Land

Orphaned Land is an Israeli heavy metal band formed in 1991. They combine Mizrahi and Maghrebi Jewish, Arabic, Turkish, and other Middle Eastern and North African musical elements, with metal, as well as from Sephardic music, and other sounds from the Mediterranean Region. They have also included "metalized" versions of various piyyutim in all of their albums since El Norra Alila. The band are considered pioneers of oriental metal. Orphaned Land have gone through several lineup changes over the years, but have retained two founding members of the band, Kobi Farhi (vocals) and Uri Zelcha (bass). Other members are Matan Shmuely (drums), Chen Balbus (guitars/saz) who replaced co-founding member Matti Svatizky in 2011, and Idan Amsalem (guitars/bouzouki) who replaced co-founding member Yossi Sassi in early 2014.