The Jerusalem Post is celebrating Israeli metallers Orphaned Land's 30th Anniversary with a new feature tracing the band's career and showcasing their April 28th livestream show with frontman Kobi Farhi. Following is an excerpt from the story.

Performing in a concert hall with an orchestra and marking 30 years making music is not something Farhi could have imagined as a 16-year-old heavy metal fan forming his own band with high school friends.

"We started off paying for rehearsals with allowance money from our parents, and we recorded our first homemade cassette with money they gave us," he said. "I never imagined we would end up touring the world so many times and having such a big fan base in the Arab world. You don’t know the word 'strategy' in your teen years. You want to play music, and you want recognition and you want to express yourself. I never thought about it being my career, but it’s the only thing I’ve done since I was 16. It’s all I know how to do."

Following the anniversary show, Farhi hopes that Orphaned Land will be able to begin touring again in the coming year, but as band members head toward their 50s and 60s, he realizes the lifestyle they’ve led for three decades may be unsustainable.

"When we started rehearsing for our first show, we were really rusty and the first couple of rehearsals were a disaster. We were shouting at each other and making mistakes, and I was thinking 'maybe we’re getting too old to do this.' Then you go onstage and you realize ‘ah, that’s what you do, that’s your profession'."

Read the complete story here.

Orphaned Land are:

Kobi Farhi – Vocals
Chen Balbus – Guitars
Idan Amsalem – Guitars
Uri Zelcha – Bass
Matan Shmuely – Drums

(Photo - Zohar Ron / Zoharon - Photograph