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2021 see’s the 30th anniversary of Orphaned Land, Israel’s premier metal band, and the five-piece are not allowing the worldwide pandemic and subsequent lockdown to put a halt on the celebrations. New EP ‘Do Not Resist’ is almost here, and tonight there is the small matter of a live-streamed gig, and one with a difference: for tonight’s gig is in real-time in front of a live audience. Yep, actual paying punters, right there in front of the stage. Not only that, there are roadies onstage! Who knew that you would miss roadies setting up so much? Or uttering the immortal “one-two, check, check” over and over? Or the sheer thrill of the house lights dropping? Man, it’s been a while.
Through the wonders of the live chat on the stream (available to those on Orphaned Land’s Patreon page), tonight’s sold-out gig comes from the Reading 3 venue in Tel Aviv. Capacity seems to be usually 1000 people approx, but tonight with the restrictions, it’s at 50% capacity. It still looks crowded (which offers hope for the future of live gigs), but one of the camera operators is able to walk through the crowd with ease, filming as he goes. Anyone concerned about restrictions taking away the sheer thrill of watching live music, surrounded by like-minded individuals, would have been pleasantly surprised at the sight of fans lined up on the barriers awaiting the band, and even more so when a few pits opened up.
The band can be seen lined up backstage waiting on their cue; alongside them – the Hellscore choir led by conductor Noa Gruman. It’s actually emotional watching them pacing around, warming up, waiting to be unleashed; and when they are unleashed, it’s a goosebump-inducing moment. Straight into ‘The Cave’ from 2018’s ‘Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs’, and the smiles from everyone in the crowd, as well as those onstage, are infectious. The crowd have arms raised as one, and are chanting in unison; it’s truly a magnificent sight after 12 months or so of streamed gigs with no one in attendance. The band is really going for it, and it’s obvious that this moment means so much, during a breather before slamming into ‘All Is One’ vocalist Kobi Farhi says “It’s been 15 months..I’ve got tears in my eyes right now…”, with someone on live chat helping out in translating from Hebrew to English. The choir is exceptional, having listened to them on studio recordings for years, actually witnessing the power that they exude onstage is an incredible moment: albeit one through the magic of the internet. ‘Like Orpheus’ is staggering, especially when the growls from Kobi kick in as he roars the line “AND RISE!”, and the work from Noa Gruman and the choir is spellbinding.
The setlist is made up of moments from the length of Orphaned Land’s thirty-year career, stretching as far back as the 1994 debut ‘Sahara’, with stops at albums such as ‘Mabool: The Story of the Three Sons of Seven’ courtesy of a mesmerizing performance of ‘Ocean Land (The Revelation)’, ‘ORwarriOR’, ‘All Is One’, and of course the most recent studio album ‘Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs’. Highlights are numerous; drummer Matan being coerced to belly dance, Kobi touching on how hard a blow it was to cancel the live show opening for Iron Maiden, the onstage keyboard player going wireless for a walkabout, the kids in attendance being brought up onstage to bounce along with ‘Birth of the Three (The Unification)’, Kobi making the delicate issue of differing religions sound so simple (“Let’s have a beer”) before a show-stopping performance of ‘Brother’, and the introduction of a masked figure for the harsh vocals on ‘Only the Dead Have Seen the End of War’, which turns out to be Oren Balbus (brother of Orphaned Land guitarist Chen Balbus) who is recovering from a recent battle with cancer. But perhaps the biggest highlight is the celebration of everything that we take for granted at gigs – swaying side-by-side with arms around your friends (or even strangers), high-fiving the person next to you the moment a certain song starts up, watching as the guitarists pull off one amazing solo after another, having a slam, knowing that “this is the last song” isn’t actually true, hell – even looking at your phone during the show: all things that we once took for granted – never again though. Especially the looking at your phone part.
A life-affirming 90-minutes or so, and an evening that highlighted just how much we have all missed live music. Congratulations to all involved, this was a magical evening.
Orphaned Land should be touring Europe in 2022, should be, let’s be optimistic; these dates will go ahead! All tour dates, as well as details of Orphaned Land’s Patreon account, can be found here.
Review – Dave
All live images – Lena Filler via the official Orphaned Land Facebook page.
