IN VAIN — Ænigma (review)

Album · 2013 · Melodic Death Metal

4.5/5 · 2013-04-03
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Ænigma is the third full-length album by Norwegian progressive death/black metal act In Vain. The album was released in 2013, following a delay related to writer Johnar Haaland having to put things on hold for almost a year while he sorted out legal issues (not related to In Vain). The album features guest appearances from Solefald duo Cornelius Jakhelln and Lazare Nedland. The bulk of In Vain make up the live backing band of Solefald so their appearance here isn’t a surprise. And also In Vain’s keyboardist/clean vocalist Sindre Nedland is the brother of the aforementioned Lazare.

Although In Vain are most often described as both a death and black metal act my experience with Ænigma is that it is much more the death metal orientated release in all aspects, although as a progressive death metal album it naturally has a great deal to do with progressive metal as well and actually quite often feels like the extreme metal elements are playing second fiddle to the prog. This is quite the melodic take on the progressive death metal style, although it rarely goes into a sound fully recognisable as melodic death metal, whereas most progressive death metal acts seem to favour a technical death metal backbone. This makes Ænigma come across as quite the refreshing change of pace. Melodic black metal influences do come into play every so often, but are often quite subtle and sometimes the only indication of their presence is a shift in growling style from deep death metal grunts to higher screams.

There seems to be two breeds of song presented on Ænigma. The melodic kind which use a lot of clean vocals and the more intense ones that won’t leave any doubt about In Vain’s death metal allegiances. It seems that the earlier stages of the album are given over to the first kind and it gradually builds up in terms of overall intensity, although To the Core also features a lot of clean singing in its second half, following on from an aggressive start. Not that the early tracks don’t have some really heavy moments in their own right, but it does seem to really build up as it goes along but climaxing with the epic Floating on the Murmuring Tide.

The creativity of the music on Ænigma is quite stunning no matter what sort of direction the album takes. Along with their progressive death metal there are actually several non-metal parts and outside influences. There quite a bit of saxophone on offer, especially in the second half of the album, and check out the brief instrumental Southern Shores for some emotive lead guitar playing to lead into Hymne til Havet, which is quite the anthemic song.

It’s also one of those albums that just seems to get better and better with additional listens, and the first impressions were very high to begin with. It has some tracks that use a lot of clean vocals like Hymne til Havet, lengthy epics like Culmination of the Enigma and plenty of death metal right across the board. The best of the bunch, and let me tell you it’s really hard to pick in this case since the quality is not only so high but also consistently high, has to be Floating on the Murmuring Tide, which seems to combine a lot of the elements that the release had delivered up until that point. Death metal, saxophone parts, a light symphonic backing here and there, acoustic guitars, drawn out instrumental work, and a mix of growling and clean vocals. Spectacular!

Ænigma has impressed me greatly and is an easy contender for being the best progressive album of 2013. At first listen it was an easy album to award a high end exceptional rating to, but I’m glad I gave it a few extra spins before finishing this review off to see how time affected its appeal. When I found that the appeal went up rather than down Ænigma then become an easy album to award a top tier rating to. This one is an absolutely must own!

97/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org/in-vain-aenigma-t2851.html))