ENFOLD DARKNESS: “ADVERSARY OMNIPOTENT”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Aug 112017
 

 

(In this post Andy Synn reviews the new album by Nashville’s Enfold Darkness, released on July 14 by The Artisan Era.)

Audacious, ostentatious, and more than a little ridiculous… the long-awaited (and much delayed) second album from Nashville metallers Enfold Darkness is either going to have you grinning from ear to ear, or wrinkling your nose up in distaste, depending on your tolerance for outrageous metallic bombast.

And although we’re not quite talking full-on Fleshgod Apocalpyse levels of OTT excess, the band’s kitchen-sink approach to blending elements from different metallic sub-genres – resulting in a sound which can, to the disgust of genre purists, probably be best summed up as “Symphonic Blackened Technical Melodic Death Metal” – definitely falls into the “love it or loathe it” camp.

So the question is… are you going to love it, or… not? Continue reading »

SUMMER SLAUGHTER SURVIVORS TOUR

 Metal News  1 Response »
May 072012
 

Last year, the SUMMER SLAUGHTER tour promoters came up with the clever idea of sponsoring a fan vote for the tour’s opening band and then organizing a second tour for the bands on the ballot who lost the election. This year, they’ve done it again, giving metal consumers two tours instead of one.

This year’s SLAUGHTER SURVIVORS tour is headlined by Pathology and includes Enfold Darkness, Fallujah, Fit For An Autopsy, and Aegaeon. We’ve complimented the music of all these bands in previous NCS posts (if you don’t believe me, type their names in the search box), and this should make a worthwhile show for those who live in the right U.S. cities.

Speaking of which, the schedule is after the jump. Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: ENFOLD DARKNESS, VALE OF PNATH, AND KEN SARAFIN

 Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jan 192012
 

A couple days ago TheMadIsraeli sent me a link to DECIBEL’s online site, and what should greet my eyes upon landing there but THAT piece of arresting artwork up. I was so struck by the colors and the imagery that I almost forgot there was supposed to be a song on that page, too.

The song is a new single called “Lairs of the Ascending Masters” by a Nashville band signed to Sumerian called Enfold Darkness. It’s an interesting blackened take on tech metal, with spidery riffing, swarmy soloing, spit-fire drumming, and vocals that vault from growly lows to torture-victim shrieks of pain — all of it rushing along well above the speed limit. If that sounds attractive, hop over to DECIBEL and let “Lairs” give your head a good scouring.

Since I’ve heard the song several times, what I want to do is talk more about the artwork. It was created by Ken Sarafin, who happens to be the vocalist for a Denver-based band named Vale of Pnath. Vale of Pnath released a self-titled EP in 2009 and then a debut album last August on Willowtip Records called The Prodigal Empire. I haven’t heard the whole album, though I’ve seen good things written about the band in comments here at NCS as well as elsewhere, and I was certainly intrigued enough by the artwork of Vale’s vocalist to finally dip a toe in the water. As noted, I also took a deeper dive into Ken Sarafin’s art. Continue reading »