Innovation does sometimes come from the places least expected; Amaseffer is a young trio from Israel delivering their most impressive debut album, which is the first of a planned trilogy about the history of the Israeli people as portrayed in the old Testament.

Amaseffer - from Hebrew - refers to the name chosen for the Israelites in the Bible meaning 'People of the Holy Book'. The basic idea is to tell the story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt from the slavery period, all the way until the Hebrews entrance to the Promised Land.

And they have orchestrated the perfect soundtrack to support this monumental and epic story, with their bombastic, symphonic and powerful style of progressive metal. The three guys take us on an almost 80 minutes roller coaster ride that takes us to many exotic and exciting places musically as well as sonically. The oriental influence are ever-present and gives the album a flair of something else, something new and something quite refreshing.

The Middle Eastern influences spices up the songs and set the scene and is the perfect foundation for the vocal performance of Mats Leven (Thrion Yngwie Malmsteen, etc.), who delivers an outstanding job on the album. Kobi Farhi (Orphaned Land) adds to the suspense with his organ, singing all of the oriental vocal parts, and the two compliments each other very well. Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy) appears on one song and adds spice to the song with her harsh and aggressive style.

Recorded and mixed in Germany under the guidance of Marcus Teske (Vanden Plas), who has given the album a crystal clear and very warm sound that fits the music very well. The excellent artwork was done by Mattias Norén (sadly one of his last piece of work for now), and those two ingredients goes hand in hand with the overall great feeling I get from this release.

Amaseffer is to me progressive metal newcomer of the year without a shadow of a doubt, and a band that the very least have sawn the seeds for something grand... This album is bound to make a stir in the progressive metal pond.

Let the Exodus commence...