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Ana Kefr: The burial tree

05/05/11 || Altmer

Upon googling, I came upon a blog post that described going to a bookstore. The person in question handily sauntered over to the philosophy and religion section to pick up a book. When he opened it, however, he found a leaflet inside the book. Being the handy person that he was, he took it out, and photographed it.

This is the picture of the leaflet inserted to the book.

He then went along the lines to check for more. Found a copy in the bookstore’s holy Bible. In another nearby book promoting Christianity. In a copy of the Torah. But curiously enough, he did not find a copy in a book describing the archeology of the Holy Land. He then did some further research as he stumbled upon the band’s MySpace (link in the information section at the bottom of the review) and found out that the name of the author on the leaflet was actually a band name, “Ana Kefr”.

He then realized that the slogan “The Infidels Rise”, refers to that band name: Ana Kefr is Arabic for “I am the infidel”. Some more loitering on that blog also gave me the comments section. Apparently the band members had read this blog post and mentioned it in a video, which can be viewed here.

Further down the thread, one comment tried to defend the Bible as not anything but what that leaflet described. The band’s response was as follows:

“I appreciate you not being condescending, Anonymous, and thank you for the kind words about talent and music, I really do appreciate it – especially since it’s coming from someone who disagrees with the message! But a love letter to the human race? If this were true, it would have to be the most sadistic form of love ever conceived!

1. The Bible tells parents to murder their children for disobedience. (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)

2. The Bible tells believers to slaughter those who question the faith or try to reason with you. (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 says to kill a whole town over one nonbeliever; Deuteronomy 13:7-12 says to kill even your own family if they try to convince you to leave your faith)

3. Jesus, the ‘prince of peace,’ speaking in parable, said to bring his enemies before him so that they might be slaughtered. (Luke 19:27) What ever happened to turning the other cheek or the Golden rule, two things that happen to be good advice?

4. God’s command to slaughter all the tribes (and, in many instances, endorsing rape and the slaughter of innocent children and animals) in ancient Palestine to keep the Hebrew bloodline pure and to give over the ‘Promise Land’ to his ‘Chosen People’ is no different from Hitler ethnically cleansing Germany of the Jews to secure the ethnic purity of the ‘Mother Land’ for the ‘Master Race.’

I understand that many people see in Christ, or any other God figure, some form of hope and the giving of meaning to life, but there exists a deep denial about the content of these faiths. If the Bible were a constant beacon of love, hope and tolerance, then I wouldn’t really care what people choose to believe. However, it churns my stomach when it is claimed that it is some kind of love letter because, as the Bible says itself – Love is patient, kind, long-suffering, endures all things, is not jealous. I see no patience, kindness, long-suffering or endurance of all things in the command of a self-proclaimed jealous God to engage in wholesale slaughter of people. The God of the Bible operates on the same morality of Al Qaeda – destroy the nonbeliever and engage in world conquest in the name of an allegedly good god.

Yes, we can separate the believer from the faith, but when the faith is the reason for the maniac believer then we must stop and look at the content.

The thing that makes me sad is that many great, intelligent, kind people – people I’m sure as yourself – adhere to these beliefs and willingly excuse and apologize for what are, in all honesty, absolutely barbaric morals and beliefs.

PS – and if the Bible is truly the inspired word of God, why did God get facts wrong? Was God ignorant?

Claiming the mustard seed is the smallest seed in the world when the orchid seed is the smallest (Matthew 13:31-32)? And getting something as crucial as mathematics wrong with an inaccurate calculation of Pi (1 Kings 7:23)? It is either all love and truth, as people say it is, or it has cracks and is a purely human document. Clearly it must be the latter.

Now, for this post alone, I salute this band about ten times. I think I’ve said it various times at various places, but those who claim to obtain their morality from the Bible (or Torah, or Qu’ran), should give their book a nice little read-over. The Bible makes many books proclaimed as bad for morality (Harry Potter is a nice example) look like pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows. In fact the Bible could compete with most pathological serial killer movies.

Now, on to the music. What do these motherfuckers play? They’re an intelligent lot, it seems, and it translates to their music. It’s a bit schizophrenic music at times, and some of the songwriting isn’t as tight as I would like it to be, but this is clearly on the meeting point between progressive, death and black metal. This is clearly forward thinking music from a forward thinking band. I’m not sure I can live with some of the execution (some of the songs are kind of weak in memorable melodies), but for sure, the style suits me and most of the riffs and vocals are pure gold.

I particularly like the moments of dissonance in the music. There are quite a few bits where this band reminds me of another genius prog metal band from Montreal called UneXpect. That is never a bad band to be compared with. Some of the creepier black metal bits remind me a bit of “The Sham Mirrors”‘s heavier moments. They are excellent at using this disharmony in their music. Most of the album is quite engaging that way by transposing these different stylistic elements (thundering riffage, disharmony, lead guitar, growls, clean vocals, keyboards) in different ways. The sound of the album is quite similar throughout, but the different little bits keep the album engaging for quite a long time. It is a bit too long for my taste at sixty minutes, but for sure, I rather have 60 minutes of this music than 20 minutes of chewed out, poorly played thrash metal or something.

The only thing I can say about these motherfuckers is that they seem to be cool people and cool musicians. Tighten up some of the songwriting, and this band is going to be real big, mark my words. I hope they keep spreading the word. It’s time the atheists organized themselves and gave some counterweight to the religious idiocy in this world. Just like feminists, the gay movement, and the anti-racism movement, we need an atheism movement to assure the place of the irreligious in this world.

Congratulations, Ana Kefr, you are the first band on the label-sent list that I’ve reviewed to make me a fucking fan. Excellent album, excellent message. I am impressed. Todah, my friends. (That’s Hebrew for “thank you”).

Recommendation: More of this in the future. Looks like we have some sanity at last. I think, therefore I am infidel.

Information
Released: 2011
Label: Musesick
Website: Ana Kefr MySpace
Band
Rhiis D. Lopez: vocals, keyboards
Kyle Coughran: guitars, vocals
Brendan Moore: guitars, saxophone, vocals
Alphonso Jimenez: bass
Shane Dawson: drums

Tracklist
01. Ash-Shahid
02. Emago
03. Monody
04. In the House of Distorted Mirrors
05. Thaumatrope
06. Bathos and the Iconoclast
07. The Zephirus Circus
08. Jeremiad
09. Apoptosis
10. Parasites
11. Paedophilanthrope
12. Fragment
13. The Blackening
14. The Collector

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