We always take our time between albums, I guess that touring after All Is One, the departure of Yossi and Kna'an did caused some delays too, but the mail reason is always the fact that we search for a very strong concept and we always want to top everything we did in the past, it also took us 8 years to release Mabool and 6 years to release ORwarriOR. It took me around 2-3 years to figure the concept for this new album, but I'm so happy with it I think it is very strong!

Yossi was and forever be an important part of the OL history, we've been together for 22 years. When he left I was a bit sad and shocked, but I also knew that when it comes to OL, the band has its own spirit that it's bigger than Yossi, Kobi or Uri. I knew that OL never had one mastermind in the band, so the band can always remain alive, and still connected to it's spirit no matter what, and look at this new album, t's OL, without Yossi, and we are at our best! Idan & Cen are today in the shows of Yossi & Matti and they are doing an amazing job! They understand the band's spirit, and we are very happy with the current lineup, both the people they are and the way they play.

When AIO was at work I thought and announced I will not do anymore growls, eventually we wrote the song "Fail" which was very angry and growls were needed there, so I never actually quit, and even with UPADM, it is needed, I think this was always the beauty with OL, the wideness of clean, emotional music to harsh and growling songs of anger. I think that the real reason was that I wanted to give more attention to my clean vocals, but I feel that in the last 2 albums, my clean vocals is at its best!

When we started the band back in 1991, we played this regular Death metal and got bored really quick, we invented a new genre at the metal scene – the Oriental Metal. It is very hard to do all these arraignments and the use of all this instruments and choirs and orchestra, but our music always have been layered and complex, it's a lot of work while writing, pre-production and while recording and mixing too, but hard work was never an obstacle for us.

Jens Bogren is the best metal producer of our times, though t's a tricky thing, when a lot of bands starting to sound like they come from the same fatory, but he is just a genius, this is the 3rd time we work together (He also mixed our DVD and AIO) only this time he was more involved, he recorded the drums, and my vocals and co-produced with us the album. It's never easy to work with me as I know what I want and I have an opinion about everything, I was even when the drums were recorded and I always write shitloads of mixing comments. I had two fights with Jens at the studio but we are brothers, I prefer someone who cares and feel the album rather then just someone who knows how to do micing, so it's all good, and some of Jens's ideas were pure gold.

It was great working with this two genius and so different singers. We're friends with both of them. In Greek Myth it says that Orpheus singing was so beautiful that even the stones and the earth loved his voice, in this song the hero lives the cave of Plato for the first time and he describes his revelation with singing, and he sings like Orpheus, and a modern Orpheus for me would be Hansi, so he was us perfect for it.

With Tomas, I needed someone with a voice of lunacy, a crazy character as this is the song where they kill the hero. I always loved Tomas growls and thought they are ver special, we are fans of ATG for many years and I think he played a perfect role in this song.

Steve was writing me an email asking me if I wish t sing on his album, well, Steve Hackett is a rocknroll legend! Of couse I agreed to do it and West To East is an amazing song, I am a big fan of his works since Genesis till his solo albums of our times. When I was done and delivered my recording Steve asked me if I want to get paid or if I may prefer having him recording a solo for the next OL album. Of course I jumped on that solo thing, as a solo will be eternal, and you cannot measure that with money. And I think he played one of the most beautiful solos on this album, I am very proud on the result.

Like Orpheus is perfect for a first single, it's less than 5 minutes, it's melodic and uplifting and it feat Hansi rom BG + it's in a way the breaking point and in a way at the middle of the album. When we came up with the idea of the clip, there was a show of KREATOR planned in Tel-Aviv, and we thought this could be perfect if the heroes will attend a show of Kreator, we felt OL needs to be laid back here and we need to tell our music and message to speak louder than our faces + we are fans of Kreator, so having them working with us on that was just AMAZING from their side!

Kna'an is a side project, something different than an OL album, the whole concept and attitude here was different as it was written to a theater play. It was fascinating to work with Walter, he is such a passionate director and a true artist, I have learned a lot from him. The writing process and my singing was made to fit the actors of the play. Collaborating with Amaseffer was also great. From the fans and Media I felt that this release is a bit ignored, maybe because it was different from the usual OL albums, maybe people were terrified that we are taking a new direction, I don't know. But it was one hell of a nice experience and I'm very happy we did it, I was at the premiere show and it was so exciting to see actors singing this songs and being played on stage.

Our main mission is to open people's eyes, to raise awareness to many subjects and to give hope to people. This is what we always did with our protest music. It took me years to realize this concept, I knew about the allegory of the cave, I knew Plato wrote it after the Greeks killed Socrates, what I didn't realize that it is a prophecy! Same as the Greeks killed Socrates, every great leader and a revolutionary that came into our world was assassinated too. Can be from Jesus Christ (I do not connect Jesus to the Christianity that came to our world 300 years later) to Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Che Gevara and many more, you can find a whole lot of dead messiahs in every country/culture during time. It is something about our human behavior that Plato was seeing, he wrote it 2,500 years ago but it's a prophecy.

They teach us that Prophets and Messiahs are biblical expressions and figures, not something we will have in our times, which is not true! I found this idea when I was looking at our world and thinking about our problems. People know the ass of Kim Kardeshian moe than tey know about someone named Plato, people want to be famous more than they want to actually create and say something. We think that religion or politicians or the meda are our problems (well, they are) but the real problem is us. We do not resist, we do not want to live the cave, we just don't care, we are drugged with reality TV, gossip news, brainwash and the wrong education system. Look how much progress humanity gain with technology, science, medicine and more, but between human beings, we are always at the same mistakes, again and again. I hope this album will let people think and will o[pen some eyes.

We surely need to talk, we need to learn also to listen to each other, and above all, we need to change our education system in complete. Every 5 ears old boy is getting toy guns for his birthday and he start t kill people on his TV screen when he is just a kid, violence is planted in his mind, and his heres are just instant TV stars who did latterly nothing except from being TV stars for a moment. No one teach us about human behavior, how to breath, to to listen, how to respect, or how to be human beings. There is more focus on Mathematics, so we all buy Coca Cola after we see a commercial of it, we all watch the bug brother and we know where Kim Kardeshian was yesterday, but we don't know that 70,000 kids are being kidnaped in India every year, just a random example I use. Our only way out will be to change our education system.

Being in OL is the only thing I know now, it is more than half of my life. It's like family, it's a big love but also some complicated relationships, we are living on the roads and sharing the best and worst moments in life together, it's far from being easy and fun the whole time, but it's our life mission and what we chose to do I this journey, so my devotion to it is complete, and I have learned from bring in OL more than any teacher, priest, Rabbi or Imam.

All violence is wrong, from any kind and anywhere. Only changing our education system will save us. The world is dark today, the world is going through a crazy revolution of technology and everything is happening fast. But the future is dark and more dark if we will not change our ways and education. One can only hope.

Lots of touring is in plans, please check our Facebook page and webste for thos dates. We might visit Brazil too next year, still not final but we're working on it!

Muinte Obrigado! We love you all, just check our album and fly away. See you all soon!