You can tell just from the title of A Monument To The Death Of An Idea that if you find progressive metal too pretentious, Enochian Theory probably aren’t the band for you. But if you like bands who paint in shades of grey instead of black and white, read on.
A Monument To The Death Of An Idea draws on a wide palette of sounds from modern progressive music, some more familiar than others, and juxtaposes them in sometimes surprising ways. The staples are all there, with drumming that ranges from jazzy shuffles to full-on double-kick death mayhem, a solid woody bass tone and guitar work that is technically skilled if sonically somewhat uninspiring.
Rain-blurred piano and synth patches are more apparent at some times than others, but the centre of the Enochian maelstrom is Ben Hayes’s voice, which varies between plaintive close-mic confessional and a soaring not-quite-falsetto with a scattering of guttural metal roars. Hayes doesn’t always quite match his own ambitions of delivery, but he’s not afraid to try for them anyway, and the heavy use of reverb embellishes his style rather than disguising it.
Amidst the Tool-esque rattle and boom of “For Those With Conscience” a lyric mentions that we may not be interested in “these self-important musings”, a conscious breaching of the fourth wall that is either subtly self-deprecatory or wilfully postmodern; the explosive death-heavy end section throws that introspection into sharp contrast, leaving you wondering what games Hayes is playing with your expectations.
A Monument To The Death Of An Idea is not your common or garden UK metal, then. It’s less the sound of the bar at closing time than the sound of the city at sunrise - “Traversing The Edge Of Dawn”, as the third track would have it, an epic and mournful face-off between slightly discordant keys and fierce guitar that has all the echoing headspace of a serious Sunday comedown that segues into “Our Lengthening Shadows”, a similarly schizoid track that leans more toward the metallic side of the equation with muted chords and harmonic squeals.
The album closes with recent download-only single “Namyamka”, which covers a lot of ground for a five minute track and acts as a potted summary of Enochian Theory’s styles and approaches.
A Monument To the Death Of An Idea has diversity and ambition on its side, but it’s not perfect – progressive metal needs a firm and experienced production hand in its early stages to curb any excesses of self-indulgence and keep the songs lean and spare, and Enochian Theory’s kitchen sink approach lessens their impact somewhat.
But consider in the fact that it’s a low-budget album, self-written and self-produced by a band determined to go their own way on their own terms, then it doesn’t sound bad at all. Give Enochian Theory some busy tour scheduling followed by a reasonable recording budget, and something truly monumental might result.
[ In the interests of transparency I'll point out that Enochian Theory are based in the same town as myself, and I've known singer and songwriter Ben Hayes for a number of years. I remain confident that I'd like the band even if I didn't know him, and I admire their fiercely independent determination to succeed with a style of music that has never been - and may never become - fashionable or easy to market. ]
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: A Monument To The Death Of An Idea, Enochian Theory, metal, prog
May 15th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Thank you for the honest review ‘Mr Editor’.
I think you did well to understand what we are going for at the time of this record and somewhat understood the limitations we had when we recorded the record, plus you seem appreciate the fact that we WILL do it our own way or not at all…which is rare in the reviews we have recieved.
I hope that you’ll find our new record (due out in Sept 08) to be better, more focused and to hopefully gain that all important ‘zen-like’ write-up of acceptance.
Stay rocking.
B