Orphaned Land working on 2016 release

Orphaned Land multi-instrumentalist Chen Balbus has reported the band are working on their sixth album, and plan to release it next year.

The follow-up to 2013’s All Is One will be the Israeli outfit’s first without Yossi Sassi, who left in 2014 to concentrate on his solo career.

Balbus tells Metal Shock Finland: “We’re writing, we’re mashing up ideas. We’ll gather everyone’s ideas. We’ll get to Israel and go full force on it.”

He adds that the finished work is likely to include “riffs and melodies still in the drawer” from their last studio project.

Asked about a released date he says: “I hope by June.”

Orphaned Land, who just completed a European tour, won a Metal Hammer award last year and shared it with Palestinian band Khalas as a symbolic gesture of peace.

Balbus reflects: “A beautiful morning, it was. Honestly, I never got the whole awards thing. But it just helps you, as an artist, spread out. I like when people listen to my music.”

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