Amaseffer - Slaves for Life

Amaseffer at Myspace

Israel’s best known metal export, Orphaned Land, is notorious for the paucity of its releases. When they released Mabool, their best known effort, in 2004, their previous album had been eight years prior, and their next album still has not surfaced. So it’s fortunate that Amaseffer has stepped in to fill the void. Their first album, Slaves for Life, sounds more than a little like Mabool, but with more emphasis on symphonic keyboards. It is intended to be the first in a trilogy of albums about the story of the Israelites in the Old Testament.

The band had difficulty finding a vocalist, but they managed to get Mats Leven of Therion to perform most lead vocals, and Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy guests on one track. I was originally shocked that Amaseffer had allowed goyim to perform on this album, but it didn’t matter because Leven’s performance was quite good. If Slaves for Life has any real weaknesses, it’s that at 77 minutes and 45 seconds, it goes on a little longer than it should. The song “Midian” also used a horse whinny at about eight minutes in which I’d heard in so much stuff that it’s basically the equine version of the Wilhelm Scream. This is a quality release and I heartily recommend it.