As Israeli band Orphaned Land was announced as a folk metal band from the festivals side, my interest was picked and I went down to see their gig, although I had little or no knowledge of them from earlier.
Now, I am well aware of that they hail from a culture very distant and different from my own, but I couldn’t find anything much of folk in them from what they played here at Brutal Assault; if anything I would like to call them fusion metal, if such a thing exists. At moments progressive, at other melodic. At moments heavy and evil, at other light and happy.

Still, the crowd which seemed to be better acquainted with the band was greeted by a “Shalom” from vocalist Kobi Farhi, after which the band and he proceeded to rip up the Czech soil with their own personal take on how metal should sound.
While the music was very varied and intriguing, the bands own performance on stage held a low key, and it was mostly Farhi’s intense nerve and guitarist Yossi ‘Sassi’ Sa’aron with his swinging groove which set the good atmosphere Orphaned Land’s concert still held.

Even though they were nothing like I had expected, Orphaned Land still delivered a good surprise and a good performance in my book, and I was happy with the time I spent in their company.

Note: After later listening to their music, I have found that the festival gig did not fully present the depth and variation their music hold, and it was therefore it felt somewhat more one-sided than it actually is. Then again, when has finding new depth in a band been a bad thing…