Warthur Esoteric Assyrian myth conceptually informs this melodic black metal release from Melechesh. The album enjoys fantastic production standards which both helps bring out the best in their melodic style of black metal (which certainly wouldn't benefit from a lo-fi, kvlt production) and also helps bring across the Middle Eastern folk music elements they bring into their music, which for my money they integrate into their sound better than any other act doing a similar schtick presently. It's a quality, progressive-tinged release which presents an impressively original sound which stands out from the black metal pack, and leaves me keen to further explore Melechesh's music.

UMUR "Enki" is the 6th full-length studio album by Dutch based, Israelian rooted black metal act Melechesh. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in March 2015. It´s the successor to "The Epigenesis" from 2010, although the "Mystics of the Pillar II (2012)" EP bridges the gap between the two full-length releases. Melechesh was founded in 1993 in Jerusalem, Israel, but relocated to The Netherlands as a consequence of issues with religious authorities in their homeland.

Stylistically the music on "Enki" is a combination of black, death, thrash, and progressive metal with occasional ethnic middle eastern elements. So it´s one of those releases where it´s probably more valid to call it extreme metal than to label it black metal, which is what Melechesh is generally regarded as. The middle eastern influences are very tastefully incorporated and provide the music with identity. The band successfully makes it all sound dark, and intense all the way through though and only during the instrumental "Doorways to Irkala", do the ethnic element of the band´s sound overshadow the extreme metal part. It´s actually a pretty long and repetitive track featuring only traditional middle eastern instrumentation, and on it´s own I´d probably usually think it was too long, but as it works as a kind of intro to the epic 12:48 minutes long closing track "The Outsiders", it serves a purpose and generally works well within the flow and concept of the album.

The above mentioned "The Outsiders" is actually one of the highlights of the album, but I´d also mention the thrashy "Metatron and Man", the epic "Enki-Divine Nature Awoken", and "The Palm The Eye and Lapis Lazuli" as some of the highlights. The latter mentioned features an absolutely killer main riff. There´s not a single wasted second on "Enki" though, and it´s a high quality album through and through. The musicianship is strong, the sound production is powerful, and suits the music well, and all compositions have something interesting to offer to the listener, so all in all "Enki" is a very impressive release. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is fully deserved.