Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs

Unsung Prophets and Dead Messiahs is the sixth studio album by the Israeli oriental metal band, Orphaned Land, and was released on January 26, 2018. Unsung Prophets and Dead Messiahs is Orphaned Land's fourth concept album, following 2010's The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR, that once again utilizes the concept of light and darkness to convey its message. Described by the band's main vocalist, Kobi Farhi, as "a protest album, a very angry album," Unsung Prophets and Dead Messiahs is based around Plato's Allegory of the cave—that is, humanity is figuratively trapped in a dark cave; all of their truths are shadows they see in the dark cave, and they will kill anyone who tries to take them out of the cave and bring them into the light. Orphaned Land believe that this allegory still holds true today, and acts as a prophecy two-thousand years later, and thus Plato is "an ancient prophet in a way". Kobi has stated that revolutionaries and leaders are always being assassinated, and are thus like "dead messiahs in a way." He stated that the albums is a projection on humanity that instead of blaming religion or politicians on society's problems, that it's the people who prefer to remain trapped in the darkness; however, if humanity can break free from their chains, the world would be a place that we could not understand unless we try to embrace it.

The album was mixed by Jens Bogren, just like their last album, All Is One, and mastered by Tony Lindgren, with much of the recording and production responsibilities done by Yonaton Kossov and Idan Amsalem in Israel. The artwork was created by Metastazis, as they also did for All Is One. In September 2018, Orphaned Land won the Video Of The Year award at the Progressive Music Awards 2018 in London, for their video, Like Orpheus, which was one of the leading singles of the album. The music video is based on a true story about a Muslim girl who used to attend metal shows in Israel. A photo taken of her in a hijab with the lead singer of Behemoth in his corpse paint went viral, after which her parents forbade her from associating with the "metal world." The music video depicts a Haredi Jewish man and a Muslim woman attending a Kreator concert at night, while hiding their association with the metal community from their families.