INTERVIEW: Chen Balbus – Orphaned Land

Before ORPHANED LAND closed Bloodstock‘s Saturday night on the Sophie Lancaster Stage with a blinding set (read our review here) we caught up with guitarist Chen Balbus to see how the legendary Israeli metal act is in doing their 19th year together. Fresh off this year’s brilliant opus Unsung Prophets And Dead Messiahs we talk to Chen about the album’s reception, spreading their message of peace, and why the metal festival is like the ultimate co-existing society.

Since we last spoke to you, ORPHANED LAND’s new album Unsung Prophets And Dead Messiahs has come out, how have you found the reception to it?

Chen: So far pretty good. We were very worried obviously because of new members and people thought we won’t make another masterpiece, that we could not do another one, with what we’ve already released how could we ever top that? We took our time, we really took our time. It took us five years but judging by the reception I think we did it right. Luckily at most places, our shows are fully packed and we’re nominated for shit tonnes of prizes.

Sounds like lots of hard work paying off.

Chen: Yeah, finally! It’s so frustrating when it sits in your computer and you’re waiting for it to come out.

And the new songs are going down well live?

Chen: Oh yeah, its weird cause on the first few shows I was nervous, but people already knew the lyrics by then. I thought wow that’s lucky, must mean they really like it.

It feels like a mix of the older stuff as well as the anthemic feel of All Is One, have the fans dug that?

Chen: Yeah, that’s pretty much what this album was about. We tried a lot of stuff throughout the years, Mabool was successful, The Never Ending Way of ORWarriOR was very successful, but All Is One was really successful because it was different! We gained lots of fans after AIO and we lost some fans because we lost the conceptual part. So we figured out that people like the conceptual part but they like the mainstream parts so we tried like bringing a mix of all the albums together and it worked out well. We brought back the metal, so now we’ve won back the metal fans.

With your message of peace and unity do you often receive messages on how you’ve changed people’s opinions on certain topics and worldviews?

Chen: That’s something that occurs to me very often, and everyone else in the band actually. We’re on Facebook and Instagram like everyone else and every time we get messages from people from every country. From the UK, from the States, from wherever, saying how our music affected them and how our lyrics changed their mind about what’s going on, especially in the middle east. It’s good because that’s our intention to tell people that we can get along and co-exist. It’s not that hard to get along. I’m very glad when I see those messages about opening people’s eyes.

With your vision of unity would you say a metal festival like this is your idea of a harmonious society?

Chen: Yes! The metal society is by far my favourite society for that reason. I’m really into pop culture as well but there’s no big family like the metal family. It’s like a religion, you can tell who’s a metal fan from a mile away. When we’re driving to the festival and you’re seeing a horde a metalheads all wearing black, tattoos, and stuff like that you think “okay, we’re heading in the right direction”. They’re just a big community, we all look so different but we have something in common which is the metal music! Notice that people all around the world are coming to these festivals and they do not fight, they don’t have issues that other cultures have and that’s why the metal community is the best.

I think the driving force behind that unity is that there’s no fear of being judged, they can be an individual.

Chen: Whatever is going on inside a metalhead’s mind they can just let out and they know that someone will accept it, you have your own space and you don’t have to worry that you like screaming people, distorted guitars, wearing tattoos, wearing dresses, you can do that here and no one judges. In this metal society, everyone has their own place, that’s what’s cool about it.

Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs is out now via Century Media Records.

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