UMUR "Obtenebrate" is the 4th full-length studio album by Norwegian black metal act Enthral. The album was released through Duplicate Records in March 2012.

The music on the album is technically well played black metal. The tracks are generally well composed, the musicianship is excellent and the album features a powerful sound production that might be raw but certainly not lo-fi. The atmosphere on the album is dark and brooding. For the most part the music features enough variation to keep the 10 track, 68:29 minutes long album entertaining although some tracks do drag on a bit too long. Repetition is of course a great part of many black metal albums and used as an atmosphere builder/enhancer, but I do feel Enthral lack a bit of dynamic in the way they use this element. The vocals are harsh and raspy but pretty standard for the genre.

And that´s what strikes me as interesting about "Obtenebrate", because on almost every parameter, they deliver a professional and well sounding black metal release, but somehow I´m still left wanting them to branch out and do something different. There are not enough standout moments in the tracks and therefore they are not that memorable. A shorter playing time would probably have helped too, but for fans of well played, very well produced and for the most part well written black metal "Obtenebrate" is probably a recommended purchase (I´ve read quite a few reviews that praised the album). A 3.5 star (70%) rating isn´t all wrong.

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.