Amaseffer Slaves For Life CD

 Intelligent Prog Metal
As a musician, I can't even begin to imagine how much work it must have taken to put this album together. "Slaves For Life" is a concept album about the Bibical story of Moses. The album musically is a intelligent mix of Middle eastern sounds mixed with Heavy Metal. All this spiced up prog is topped off with the great Mats Leven behind the mic. This is a album that really needs to be taken as a whole and could have easily just been one really long song. There is no verse/chorus formula found here, and for the most part, verses are only repeated once with little or no "true" choruses found on the entire length of this 78 minute monster. This does greatly reduce the albums ability to stick with you after listening to it. However, the musicianship, vocals, and most of all production, are top notch. But potential buyers be warned this album does take time and repeated listens. I had to listen to the entire album from beginning to end several times, before I could truly appreciate all the effort that went into producing this release. Don't be suprised if by the last several minutes of the album you find yourself picking sand out of your ears. One thing is for sure, this album takes you places.
Submitted by chevdaddy1 (Gwinn, MI) 
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 Spellbinding progressive metal from Israel.
There are a select few words that adequately illustrate the debut release from Israel’s Amaseffer. Words like, tour de force, epic, masterpiece, magnum opus, work- of- art best describe this release from this stunning band. For those of you that are into your geography and music at the same time will un-doubtedly know that Israel is a small country and an unknown entity on the music map regarding metal music. My music knowledge towards Israeli metal is unashamedly dismal and my only exposure has been to bands like Salem and Orphaned Land who have been the global torchbearers for Israeli metal. Who-ever would have thought that Israel was capable of spawning such a brilliant progressive metal band as in Amaseffer? A good benchmark to measure what effect a band has on the listener is how the music evokes emotion from the attentive listener. Amaseffer are one band that falls squarely into this category and are one of the most exciting new-breed of progressive metal bands to emerge in recent times. They are worthy contend-ers to knock some of their Western compatriots off their throne for good and cement their name in the annuals of progressive metal history. They mix an incredible amalgam of styles and influences into their music. For obvious rea-sons there is a strong Middle Eastern influence combined with Hebrew music, symphonic elements and immense choruses with the music that is deeply en-trenched in progressive metal. Despite the album sung in English, they have included Hebrew segments in parts, which add to the storyline. Now on paper this shouldn’t work too well, as both languages are on the oppo-site ends of the spectrum but for some strange reason this has worked admirably for the band and gives a solid feeling and in depthless to the music. For me, being an ardent devotee to progressive metal, it is great to write a review and not use the Dream Theater yardstick as how to measure the music of a band. Amaseffer are wholly original and to my ears, sound like no other band around which to me is a big plus factor. ‘Exodus: Slaves of Life’ is a concept album, with a very epic sounding story line that is based on the bible (book of Exodus) and follows the journey of the Hebrew’s as they travel through the desert to Egypt. Without giving too much away, the music has an almost ‘ film score’ appeal to it sound which is immense in character and tone as they add all sorts of sound effects into the storyline to give it a feeling of grandeur. To add some flavour to the vocals, the band has utilised the services of Mats Levén (Yngwe J. Malm-steen, At Vance and Therion) to add his vocal creativity overall to the album. Those of you that are familiar with Levén’s vocals will know that he is an ex-traordinary talent and his voice is so well suited to the music. The band was contemplating using Andy Kuntz from Vanden Plas fame, but due to time re-straints, was unavailable to get involved with this project. I think they have done just fine with Levén as I have always admired his exceptional talent. Other artists adding their respective talents are Angela Gossouw(Arch Enemy) on one track, albeit a minor role and fellow Israelite Kobi Farhi (Orphaned Land vocalist) to name but a few. I am not even going to attempt a track listing of the album, as it will be a futile attempt due to the complexity of the album. With all the progressive metal music that I have bought over the last decade or so, Amaseffer are the one band that has impressed me the most. This is due to their innovative song-writing prowess, good sense of melody and fusing so many different styles into their music by leaving the attentive listener feeling as if they have travelled on a journey of a lifetime. Strangely, the whole listening experience was rather sur-real and after reading the lyrics it left me wanting to learn more about the story they were attempting to put across to the listener. If this is the quality of Amaseffers music now and they remain as focussed in what they are doing for the next few years, then we are in for one heck of an aural treat with their sophomore release. Now if progressive metal is your drink of choice and you want an appetising refresher, then Amaseffer are the perfect cocktail!
Submitted by Transcendence (South Australia)
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