Wednesday, August 12, 2020

#kufiyaspotting: Kobi Farhi of Israeli metal band Orphaned Land

 

 

 

Orphaned Land were founded in 1991, led by Jaffa-born singer Kobi Farhi. Mark Levine discusses them in his book Heavy Metal Islam, and he calls them an "Oriental death-doom metal" band. Their orientation is very much about peace, and according to Levine, they have lots of fans in the Middle East outside of Israel. Kobi is Ashkenazi, the band's lead guitarist until 2014, Yossi Sassi is Mizrahi (Libyan-Iraqi). Given their political orientation, I don't regard this use of the kufiya as appropriation, but rather a signifier of solidarity/identification with Palestinian/Arab culture. I'm not much of a metal head but I respect Mark Levine's opinion about their virtuosity. Here is a YouTube video of one of their songs, to give you  flavor of what they do.

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