ENTHRAL — Obtenebrate (review)

ENTHRAL — Obtenebrate album cover Album · 2012 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
On to the never...

Genre: progressive/avant-garde death-black

After an extended break, Enthral are back and their new weapon is called "Obtenebrate". And if you like progressive black metal with all the black metal aesthetics intact but with an almost avant-garde approach, then this might well be a candidate for the Black Metal Album of the Year for you.

There are plenty of blastbeats on the album accompanied by intentionally chaotic tremolo picking and the vocals are harsh in the typical black metal fashion plus Enthral make use of tense harmonies and dissonant chords, so, like I said, all the black metal conventions are observed.

But, in addition to this, there are plenty of shifts in tempo, and the song structures are generally quite complex, and as a consequence more varied than what one might be used to in black metal. As a matter of fact, most of the tunes on this release are quite dynamic in structure, taking you back and forth between ferocious blastbeats and heavy passages, and fans of out-of-the-blue changes will definitely like this approach to writing music. In addition, Enthral venture into several more melodic landscapes, typically generated through harmonic twin guitars, and these stand in interesting contrast with the more chaotic and tense parts.

Another feature of the music on this release is that, while black metal is undoubtedly the base sound, Enthral also draw on death metal and thrash metal, and thus "Obtenebrate" might have a somewhat broad appeal in the extreme metal community.

Fans of avant-garde and progressive black metal should definitely check out this challenging release.
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