Amaseffer - Slaves For Life

North America and Europe have always been the main breeding ground for heavy metal, with thousands of bands originating from those continents. But metal is a worldwide genre, and there are metal bands flourishing in nearly every country in the world. Israel is one of those countries where metal is on the rise, and we've heard quite a few bands from that area in the past few years. The latest is Amaseffer.

Amaseffer is a trio of guitarists Hanan Avramovich and Yuval Kramer along with drummer Erez Yohanan. For Slaves For Life, they've brought aboard Mats Leven (Yngwie Malmsteen) to do the majority of the vocals. In addition, there are three Israeli guest vocalists and an appearance on one track by Arch Enemy's Angela Gossow.

Slaves For Life is progressive metal with an orchestral flair. The songs play out like a movie score, with layers of keyboards and strings and epic arrangements that stretch out for over 10 minutes on several tracks. In addition to prog metal, Amaseffer utilizes Middle Eastern and world music that adds their own unique flavor to the proceedings.

This is the band's debut CD, the first in a trilogy about the Israeli people as portrayed in the Old Testament. It's a fascinating and compelling story, brought to life with vivid description and sophisticated arrangements. Leven's voice fits in perfectly with this epic style. He has great range and power, and is able to sing with a lot of dynamics and emotion. The Israeli vocalists add more of the aforementioned unique flavor, and Angela Gossow's distinctive screams are perfect for the 12 minute "Middian."

Slaves For Life is remarkably polished and well crafted for a debut. It has a lot of depth, uniqueness and drama. I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of Amaseffer's trilogy.

(released June 24, 2008 on Inside Out Music)