SLAVES FOR LIFE

King By-Tor first introduced me to this band before they were even on this site. I listened to some of their songs on their MySpace site and was very impressed with the middle-Eastern sound combined with that heaviness, which made me think of ORPHANED LAND. Both bands are from Isreal of course. This particular record is a concept album about Isreal who were in slavery in Egypt, and Moses who would be used by God to eventually deliver them. We don't get that far on this album though as it ends with the 10 plagues. What I love about this recording is the singing done mostly by THERION vocalist Mats Levin. He's amazing ! The Hebrew vocals are done by ORPHANED LAND's Kobi Farhi, and we get some growls on one track by ARCH ENEMY's Angela Gossow. There is a lot of orchestration and samples as well. It's all done so well that i'm not even going to complain about the concept being more important than the music like I usually do. Hey after all this is based on God's word about the history of his people. In fact AMASEFFER means "People of the Book".

"Sorrow" opens with samples, spoken words, acoustic guitar and flute. Samples end it. "Slaves For Life" opens with vocal melodies with a heavy atmosphere. Drums arrive a minute in as it gets heavy. Vocals follow with marching-like drums. The guitar lets loose before 4 1/2 minutes. Drums and vocal melodies end it. "Birth Of Deliverance" opens with orchestration. Vocals come in and are spoken. A melody 3 minutes in. I like it. It ends a minute later. Vocals get passionate 4 1/2 minutes in. Powerful soundscape 6 1/2 minutes in as guitar grinds away. Another good melody 9 1/2 minutes in (like at 3 minutes). "Midian" opens with orchestration before a haunting atmosphere arrives after a minute with flute. Vocal melodies join in. A nice heavy sound 2 1/2 minutes in followed by vocals. I like when Pharoah comes in with the growling vocals 5 1/2 minutes in. Just the best part on the whole album because it's so dramatic and powerful. A sudden change 6 1/2 minutes in as acoustic guitar and reserved vocals arrive as Moses contemplates things. Moses is on the run after killing an Egyptian. "Zipporah" is the name of the Midian woman that Moses would marry. Female vocal melodies and samples. This is a fairly mellow track with male and female vocals.

"The Burning Bush" opens with the sound of the bush burning as you can hear Moses working away, then suddenly he gasps at what he sees. A bush on fire that isn't being consumed. Cool guitar melody as vocals come in. Piano joins in and then a heavier sound takes over. I like the lyrics here as Moses says there is no way he can lead Isreal out Egypt. "Who am I at all". God would later call him the most humble man on the whole earth. "Wooden Staff" has a powerful intro. Whispered vocals come in as the guitar cries out. Heavy drums 3 1/2 minutes in as guitar starts to solo. Great sound. Multi vocals come in as the instruments start to each disappear. "Return To Egypt" features orchestration, percussion and mournful vocal melodies. "Ten Plagues" features spoken words that come and go as well as thunder and explosive sounds, heavy riffs etc. all depicting God's judgement against the Egyptians. "Land Of The Dead" refers to the final plague where God's angel came into each Egyptian household and killed the firstborn. A death march solemnly beats as vocals come in around 1 1/2 minutes. The sound gets fuller. Some tasteful guitar 4 1/2 minutes in. Lyrics like "The eye of RA will see no more, the sun that lights his kingdom's shores, a kingdom that became a grave, is now the liberty of every Hebrew slave". It ends with "There is no single soul left in Egypt that can be called "alive"."

A solid 4 stars and I can't wait for their next record as they continue the story.