UMUR
"Priests of Annihilation" is the debut full-length studio album by US death metal act Enthean. The album was independently released in May 2016. Enthean was formed in 2012 and released the "Tones of Desecration" demo in 2013. They were initially a four-piece but opted to continue as a three-piece after bassist Adam Mast left in 2015. The lineup consists of Brian Kingsland (guitars, vocals), Adam Broome (guitars, vocals, bass, orchestration), and Mitch Moore (drums).
Stylistically the music on "Priests of Annihilation" is a combination of technical death metal and symphonic black metal with a progressive twist. While it doesn´t sound old fashioned, there are a lot of early 90s death- and black metal traits in the music (when Enthean strip their sound of keyboards, I am for example often reminded of early Morbid Angel), and the album is generally a bit more organic and raw sounding than many similar contemporary releases. The same can be said about the sound production which is also darker and more raw and organic, than what many listeners would probably expect. It´s not murky or noisy by any means though, and details are clearly heard in the mix. In addition to vocals, guitars, bass, and drums, the music also features keyboards. The latter sometimes enter a rather predictable neo-classical style, which is also true for some of the lead guitar themes, but it´s never overblown or too pompous, but instead tastefully epic. The vocals alternate between raspy black metal snarling and death metal growling. It´s a combination, which works really well for Enthean.
The quality of the material on the 8 track, 44:41 minutes long album is very high throughout. There´s not a single sub par track featured on the album, and most tracks stand out instantly. And that´s not because this is simple or wildly hook laden music, but Enthean are skilled composers and master the difficult balance of creating relatively complex music, which is still memorable and powerful. It´s great how Enthean successfully combine blasting symphonic black metal sections with more riff oriented sections of death metal brutality.
Upon conclusion "Priests of Annihilation" is a very impressive debut album. With that said it´s obvious there are still elements of Enthean´s sound which can be improved upon and tweaked a bit. Especially the sound production is a bit rough around the edges, and although I personally find it incredibly charming, and wouldn´t have it any other way, I can see other listeners craving a more polished sound. I´m not sure a more clear and clinical sound production would have provided the material with the same dark and majestic atmosphere, but I´m not blind to the fact, that some listeners may not feel the same way about it. To my ears though a 4.5 star (90%) rating is fully deserved.