Orphaned Land fuse progressive, doom, and death metal as well as Middle-Eastern folk music and Arabic traditions in a form of Oriental metal. Each album has some concept related to two extremes: a meeting of east and west, past and present, light and darkness, and God and Satan.[2]

The band’s first album was Sahara (1994) which was originally released as a demo. The second album, El Norra Alila (1996), had many eastern/oriental influences, such as “El Norra Alila” (”Illustrious God”), based on a poem sung during Yom Kippur as a plea of forgiveness. It also included songs with traditional oriental Jewish piyyut and Arabic melodies. The album explored the themes of light and darkness, as well as conveying the message of commonality between the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islam, and Christianity).[3]

The third album, Mabool: The Story of the Three Sons of Seven (the Hebrew name for the Deluge, depicted in the Bible and Noah’s story), released in 2004, was seven years in the making. It tells the story of three sons (one for each Abrahamic religion) who try to warn humanity of a flood coming as punishment for their sins. Musically, the album contains oriental instruments, two choruses, traditional Yemenite chants sung by Shlomit Levi, and quotes of Biblical verses from the story of the deluge, read by vocalist Kobi Farhi. After Mabool, Orphaned Land released an EP, Ararat (2005) named after Mount Ararat.

Orphaned Land are currently working on the follow-up to Mabool, entitled The Never Ending Way of ORWarriOR. OrWarrior means “Warrior of Light,” and the concept will be the battle between light and darkness. The album will have a different sound than Mabool, and will be produced by Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree.[4]

Orphaned Land are featured in the documentary Global Metal by the creators of Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey.