THIS ALBUM CONTAIN(10-TRACKS)
1-SORROW
2-SLAVE FOR LIFE
3-BIRTH OF DELIVERANCE
4-MIDIAN
5-ZIPPORAH
6-BURNING BUSH
7-THE WOODEN STAFF
8-RETURN TO EGYPT
9-TEN PLAGUES
10-LAND OF THE DEAD
CREDITS:
Erez Yohanan - Drums,
Yuval Kramer - Guitars
Hanan Avramovich - Guitars
Guest members:
Mats Leven - All lead And Backing Vocals
Angela Gossow - Vocals
Kobi Farhi - Vocals
Maya Avraham - Vocals
Avni - Vocals
Amir Gvirtzman - Flutes
Yatziv Caspi - Tablas
Yair Yona - Bass
Amaseffer is the first Israeli band signed by Inside Out Music. “Slaves For Life” is the opening volume of a planned trilogy about the history of the Israeli people as portrayed in the Old Testament. Hanan Avramovich (guitar), Yuval Kramer (guitar) and Erez Yohanan (drums, percussion and narrator) have delivered a unique and high class mixture of Progressive Metal with an orchestral style of an epic film score, influenced by Middle Eastern culture, I have always been a Lover of progressive bands, band just FORGET that their aim should be to make good music and not write a staff notation of a solution to Schrodinger's equation. With Amaseffer' Slaves For Life however, I felt blessed to have stumbled upon such a work of art.Firstly, I would like to acknowledge this band's sheer songwriting prowess. It was truly unlike anything I had heard before, or even expected from this album. Right from the start, one can tell that the aim of this band was to present a story to the listener through their music, not how the drummer can beat Mike Potnoy at complex time signatures. Their use of folk instruments, the Mid-Eastern tunes and symphonies and of course,their use of sounds from everyday life and the dialogues in Hebrew; all of them made it seem as if it one was watching a movie and not listening to an album. The vocals by Mats Levin of Therion are perfect.Not too whiny, nor too cheesy. Sometimes, they even remind you of Roy Khan's (Kamelot) singing. The lyrics are very to-the-point. Amaseffer have not tried to be excessively poetic and use verses that could mean ANYTHING, which is something I really appreciate. If a story has to be told, the events within it should unfold with ease.Now, the fact that this band is a progressive metal band, could mean that people will expect a high level of technique. Unfortunately (for such people), that is not the case. But its not a problem either. Their rhythms are pretty simple and straightforward powerchords, notes and chords and their solos are not very fast or technical; but they all add to the overall mood of the album. There's not a single moment where the mood of the song becomes casual due to a rhythm that may be technically sound, but that's all it is. Every song generates its own mood because each song talks about different phases of the Moses story. And all the dialogues and sound effects make sure that even if you're not very knowledgeable about that story (like me),you WILL know what events unfold (even though the dialogues are in Hebrew) Symphony X. I don’t have a personal favourite song as every song is great and paramount to the album. But yes, I enjoyed ‘The Wooden Staff’ And "Slave For Life" That Is A Number One Hit On my radiostation (HOLYMETAL)The most for its Digitized Hebrew Voice in the beginning and that section in the middle where the Guitar, Bass And xlophone are playing this catchy Mid-Eastern tune. All in all, this is one of the best concept album I have heard In This Style till date. Once again, I’d like to congratulate the band. To be able to come up with such brilliance on debut itself is nothing short of a world record. In fact, if the band continues to write music like this, and improve, they could easily dethrone even veterans in this genre like Opeth and Symphony X. A brilliant collection of music. Something that every fan of good music should possess.( http://www.amaseffer.com/ )
When “Orphaned Land”, released their masterpiece of an album 3 years back (Mabool) that lent them worldwide recognition, people thought Israeli music couldn’t get much better. How wrong they were! . This band, “Amaseffer” is as good as “Orphaned Land” if not better.The band released their debut album “Slaves For Life” this year, a few weeks back. This is a concept album and is the first of the trilogy that will deal with the story starting from Moses’ birth and his leading the oppressed Hebrews to the Promised Land. As the title of the album suggest, Amaseffer (which “means People Of The Holy Water” in Hebrew) starts this album right from the beginning i.e. the slavery period. Which song encompasses which part of the story I’ll mention later in the review.The band’s site says they had a problem of finding a vocalist for the band right from the starts. Even after hiring Andy Kuntz of well-known progressive band “Vanden Plas”, the vocals remained a problem, as he could not commit to the band because of personal problems and previous commitments. After a string of auditions the band decided to keep Tony Levens from Orchestral/Symphonic band “Therion” as the New Vocalist. This persistence for the perfect vocalist is my choice for the turning point of the band’s success because I have heard Tony’s work in Therion and this guy not only sounds good, but has an amazing range as well.The album consists of 10 tracks with the lengths of tracks varying from a little over two-and-a-half minutes to almost twelve minutes. As expected the band’s lyrics consist of a lot of Hebrew and consist mainly of storytelling that is handled by the band’s percussionist, Erez Yohannan. The lead vocals are as expected something straight out of Therion’s books and sound like something from Therion’s album, “Lemuria”.The first two tracks (Sorrow and Slaves For Life) speak about the oppression of the Hebrew slaves by the Pharaoh, their “sorrow” and their lack of hope which makes them believe that they will remain “slaves for life” and die slaves. The next few tracks narrate the birth of Moses (Birth Of Deliverance), his killing of a guard and escape to the city of Midian (Midian) and his marrying the daughter of the ruler of Midian (Zipporah). This track onwards starts his quest to overthrow the ruler and free his fellow natives. This starts from Moses talking to God (The Burning Bush) to his carrying a wooden staff that carried the power of God (The Wooden Staff and The Return To Egypt) and finally ending with the tracks (Ten Plagues and Land Of The Dead) that describe the freedom of his people after Moses famously summoned the ten deadly plagues.The album apart from the obvious Guitars and Drums uses Folk Instruments like the oud, saz, flutes, tablas and bouzouki to give the album a unique sound and touch. Apart from these the band uses majestic orchestration and background sound effects to create the perfect movie like atmosphere for telling a story dealing with a sensitive topic like the Exodus. What is better than this is the plethora of guest vocalists the band managed to pull in. The album has “Kobi Farhi” of Orphaned Land itself taking care of the oriental vocals (who could do it better?) and Arch Enemy vocalist “Angela Gossow” growling on tracks like “Midian”. Unheard of Bassist “Yair Yona” does a magnificent job.This brilliantly produced, structured and atmospheric album is a must hear for any fan of oriental music or Orphaned Land. No doubt this album will arouse comparisons between this band and fellow band “Orphaned Land” because of the similarity of their music. If I had to choose I would choose none as the better because each of them are great in their own ways. Orphaned Land had better guitar solos and song structures, but Amaseffer has way better production, background effects and atmosphere, which are the essential requirements for telling a story. This album is a masterpiece and it is difficult to believe that it is a debut album. Do not miss it under any circumstances, as this may well be one of the releases of 2008(http://www.holymetalrob.com/)
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