Oriental metal is a subgenre of folk metal that combines heavy metal music with elements of traditional Middle Eastern music. The music developed in Israel during the first half of the 1990s with the bands Orphaned Land, Melechesh and Salem being the pioneers of the genre. Contributions from other countries have emerged since then.
Mark LeVine, professor of history at the University of California and author of Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance,...
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Oriental metal is a subgenre of folk metal that combines heavy metal music with elements of traditional Middle Eastern music. The music developed in Israel during the first half of the 1990s with the bands Orphaned Land, Melechesh and Salem being the pioneers of the genre. Contributions from other countries have emerged since then.
Mark LeVine, professor of history at the University of California and author of Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam, cites the Israeli band Orphaned Land as the founder of oriental metal "in that they were one of the first bands anywhere in the region to mix oriental, Arabic sounds into metal." Founded in 1991, the group released their first and only demo The Beloved's Cry in 1993, "immediately creating a media stir" that "quickly drew attention to their unorthodox style." Members of the group were still teenagers when they released their debut album Sahara in 1994. The music of Orphaned Land "borrow heavily from...
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