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.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Le bannissement Atmospheric Black Metal
CANTIQUE LÉPREUX
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tarantula Heart Sludge Metal
MELVINS
Buy this album from MMA partners
God Damned You To Hell Traditional Doom Metal
FRIENDS OF HELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Absence Melodic Death Metal
THE ABSENCE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Unextinct Technical Death Metal
HIDEOUS DIVINITY
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Fallen Ashes - Wage War (Official Lyric Video)
FALLEN ASHES
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Unreality (Single) 2024
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Cold Hands
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
IRON MONKEY - Misanthropizer (Official Music Video)
IRON MONKEY
Bosh66· 10 days ago
??? (Losing ART) - "????" (Official Music Video) [HD]
漂浮者樂團
Bosh66· 11 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed