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Review:
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Well, well, what have we here? Hot on the trails of Amaseffer
we have another band coming out of Israel, also signed to
InsideOut. Expectations and parallels will no doubt be drawn
right off the bat seeing this artist's country of origin,
but it seems that this band is trying to break the mold.
While many bands to emerge from the East come out with all
of their cultural guns blazing, creating a very eastern
sounding group of bands like the formerly mentioned Amaseffer,
and the better known of the Israeli proggers, Orphaned Land,
this band is trying something different. With one foot square
in the middle of American influences like Tool and one foot
in the middle of the UK with influences like Yes while still
shouldering a tiny bit of that eastern fell, Ephrat comes
off as a very difficult band to describe. Most commonly
lines are drawn between this band and Porcupine Tree for
their similarities in mixing modern alt-rock with prog-rock
tenancies of old to make a new and unique blend, which is
probably what made Steve Wilson himself sign on board as
an adviser to the fledgling musicians and even mixed the
album. The musicianship on this album is tight, and even
though the band was assembled as kind of a ''rag-tag'' bunch
they all seem to gel. The rhythm section chugs along well,
and Omer proves himself worthy by playing his flutes, keyboards
and guitars in an exceptional fashion.***
Other guests make excellent appearances
as well. Throughout the album you'll be treated to more
than one voice, even if lead singer Lior Seeker does a fine
job as it is with his semi-whiny (in a good way) voice that's
more often used in a low-tone to add some ''creep'' factor
to the album. That factor is brought up exponentially, however,
when you add someone like Petronella Nettermalm (Paatos)
to the mix, her voice bringing back memories of The Shining
during her time spent on Haze, the echoing vocals ''Come
play with me...'' boring their way into your soul. This
song also features some excellent guitar work from Mr. Ephrat
himself coming into the last couple minutes of the song
when the guitar work simply gets faster and faster until
it's fast enough to induce headbanging, and then the vocals
come right back in to chill everything down. While this
is one of the biggest standouts on the album, there's still
better things to come. One of those things is the excellent,
The Sum Of Damage Done, given voice by the Swedish innovator
of modern progressive metal, Daniel Gildenglow (Pain Of
Salvation), who uses the full range of tone and moods during
the course of the song to make for another powerful piece.***
Of course, the band gets along just fine
on their own as well. This is proven right off the bat with
The Show, a winding pseudo-epic which starts with an almost
techno-groove before moving into smooth riffs which slow
into the delivery of the vocals. Things pick up until near
the end when everything slows back down to a crawl. The
album never becomes too fast or too slow to become uninteresting,
and this song is a good demonstration of how the band is
able to manipulate speed to keep things dynamic. Blocked
is the shortest song on the album, being the only one under
7-minutes, clocking at around five, and it's also the only
instrumental. It's a fine piece which is not an extraordinary
exercise in self-indulgence and guitar wank-off-ery, but
instead a meditated journey with heavy tones which separates
two equally heavy pieces, one of which is the slow-starting
but ultimately heavy ass hell Better Than Anything, which
shows Lior's voice at both its most creepy (''who would
have thought I'd have to give you up...'') and at its pitch
limit. Excellent riffs from Omer throughout keep things
moving along as well as a nice eastern bit of instrumental
section right in the middle of the track along with some
more emotive parts from each band member.***
Of course the centerpiece for the album
really is the final track. Real may not be a contestant
to take down the almighty Close To The Edge, but it's a
fine exercise in modern heavy prog that exemplifies that
these kinds of things can be tackled, and not just by Porcupine
Tree. With fantastic melodies which make welcome recurrences
and some truly moving sections, Real can be seen as the
definitive Ephrat track at present. It would appear that
they really wanted to prove this as well, not only in the
amount of production that went into the song, but also in
the fact that the superstar guests are absent from this
track (with the exception of the mixer, Steve Wilson), meaning
that the band showcases, ''hey, this is what we're capable
of!'' This song is where everything clicks, and being that
it's the most eclectic in terms of styles, it's also the
biggest standout after repeated listens - there's even a
short section which borders on what could be called Electronica,
which somehow fits. Someone once questioned why reviewers
tend to note the longest song as the standout tune in prog
albums, well, this is why - the amount of effort put into
them makes them truly memorable when well done.***
This band has got feet under them, and
are yet another Israeli band which ''needs to be watched''.
This debut shows a group of passionate musicians brought
to life by great production and memorable songs. Fans of
heavy prog should definitely check out this album. They're
no ''clone'' band to Porcupine Tree, but that's the audience
that they're shooting for. 4 stars out of 5! Some people
have called 2008 an infertile year for prog - those people
don't know where to look.***
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