This morning seemed to be littered with quality progressive folk metal acts; first we had seen a good show from Amorphis on the True Metal Stage, and moving right over to the Black Stage afterwards, it was time for Orphaned Land to treat us to some eastern delight.

“We are Orphaned Land from Israel, shalom!”

This greeting came from vocalist Kobi Farhi, but long before he and most of the other musicians even entered the stage, drummer Matan Shmuely was firing up the enthusiastic crowd already during the intro music.
From this point on, Orphaned Land delivered a grand performance and a great party to the people of Wacken (of which there were quite a few up to watch this concert I might add). Shmuely kept on being cool to watch throughout, and the rest of the band worked hard and well at picking up on the lead he had taken in the beginning of the show by giving a lively and catching performance. They even had a few tricks up their sleeve, which we would soon be made aware of.

“I’m not Jesus Christ, in case you wondered”
- Kobi Farhi (vocals)

Well, the likeness between Farhi’s getup, and the commonly accepted image of the prophet was striking, and at least that part I’m pretty sure was intentional from the vocalists’ side.
He was letting his wavy hair hang free, and he was wearing one of those long white shirts/skirts commonly used by Middle Eastern men, as well as throwing of a few symbolic hand-movements once now and again. And I’m not so sure he had remembered to put pants on under that dress either…
These things were all secondary to the majesty of his voice though, which lead us through stories of near and far things, and more importantly, it made us feel the stories he told.
He wasn’t the only singer on stage though, in Sapari the band was joined by a female vocalist who was introduced as “a friend from Israel”, I’m guessing it was Shlomit Levi, who also did the female vocals on the album, but I’m not sure.
There was also a male guest, this time in Halo Dies (The Wrath Of God), and the guest turned out to be the Israeli black metal artist Dark Wrath (Bartholomeus Night), who got to sing the grim vocals of the song. I thought I heard him being called Iffi, but I’m not sure where I got that from…
Levi (if, indeed, it was her) also spiced her performance in Sapari up with some luscious belly-dancing, a thing she would later repeat during Norra El Norra (Entering The Ark), a song to which Farhi also called for a large jumping session from the audience;

”When we play Norra El Norra, everybody must jump!”
- Farhi (vocals)

At the end of the show, it seemed like Farhi wanted to share a few parting words with us before leaving the stage, but sadly someone had already shut his mic off, so whatever it was, it was completely lost on us.
Still, even without this wisdom (I’m guessing it was something wise he was about to say) I still enjoyed the performance a lot, and it just served to convince me even further that this is a band I should really begin to check out more.

Setlist:

Birth Of The Three (The Unification)
Olat Ha’tamid
Barakah
The Kiss Of Babylon (The Sins)
Disciples Of The Sacred Oath II
Sapari
The Path (Part 1) – Treading Through Darkness
Ocean Land (The Revelation)
Halo Dies (The Wrath Of God)
Norra El Norra (Entering The Ark)
Ornaments Of Gold