JENX: “ENUMA ELISH” and “THE CALL OF CTHULHU”

At one point in the last two years I checked out the music of a band from Bordeaux, France, named Jenx, which is an acronym for something that I haven’t yet figured out. I also haven’t remembered what led me to investigate them or why I didn’t write about them then. I have only a vague recollection that the music was a style of industrial metal.

Jenx have a new album called Enuma Elish that’s scheduled for release on May 11 by Klonosphere and Season of Mist. Last week, the band released a music video for the album’s title track, which I watched yesterday. There’s still an industrial vibe to the music, particularly at the beginning, though less pronounced than I remember. The riffing is a truckload of heavy, the bass tone is monstrous, the drumming is superb, the band make effective use of synths, and the vocals sound like a raw wound (and reminded me a bit of Joe Duplantier). When the main riff returned at about the 3:00 mark after a short interlude, I headbanged so hard that I put a dent in the table where I was listening. I really like this song.

The video, which was made by Julien Rodrigues, is really well done, too. It mixes footage of the band performing the song together with film of the band members as the subjects of what may be grotesque medical experiments and may be something else with a more occult purpose. Whatever is going on, the video is fun to watch, and the music is galvanizing. You’ll see it after the jump.

After watching the video, I poked around the interhole looking for more info about Jenx and discovered something else they’ve done that’s too juicy to overlook — a metal soundtrack to a silent film titled The Call of Cthulhu.

Although the film is a silent movie, it was made in 2005 by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. I haven’t seen it, though reviews on the Amazon page for the DVD are very positive.  I gather that the soundtrack for the movie as it was originally released was a symphonic score.  But Jenx agreed to make a metal soundtrack for the movie, composing and performing 47 minutes of music, conforming to the structure and imagery of the film. And really, how could you NOT have a metal score to a movie called The Call of Cthulhu?

The Jenx score was originally created for a May 21, 2010, performance at the 10th anniversary of the “Printemps des Cinéconcerts” organized by the Jean Vigo Cinematographic Center and the Rock School Barbey. This is apparently an annual event in which contemporary music is performed live as accompaniment to silent movies. It appears that in November 2010 Jenx repeated the performance at the Cinémathèque in Toulouse.

I gather that the band had plans to release a DVD of the movie with their own soundtrack last year, as well as the soundtrack album, but I haven’t found any indication that either of those things has yet happened. It definitely needs to happen. [I have an update about this, which I’m adding after the trailer.] If you doubt that, check out this trailer:

UPDATE: We’ve been in contact with Xav Jenx since writing the original version of this post. He tells us that the Cthulhu soundtrack is recorded, mixed, and mastered, and that the band plan to release a Jenx limited edition of the DVD, though additional work on the DVD content remains to be done. For now, Jenx is focused on promoting Enuma Elish. Speaking of which, here’s the official video for the title track to that album:
 

Here are band links for Jenx; their previous albums can be found via the Bandcamp link:

http://www.facebook.com/jenxnoise
http://www.jenxnoise.com/
http://jenx.bandcamp.com/
http://www.reverbnation.com/jenxnoise
http://www.wix.com/xavjenx/cthulhu