Our Cursed Rapture

Personnel: Matt Brown (vocals, guitar, background vocals); Justin Corser (vocals); Mike Low (guitar, acoustic guitar); Jack Blackburn (drums).
Audio Mixer: Jamie King.
The debut release by Nashville-based metal band Enfold Darkness is quite an interesting beast. They've got a hell of a lot of ambition -- a quality they share with pretty much all their Sumerian labelmates. The songs on Our Cursed Rapture mix melodic, technical death metal in the style of the Black Dahlia Murder or Arsis with the relentless, bombastic black metal of Cradle of Filth, but there are other elements thrown into the mix, too. At the 2:30 mark on "In the Galleries of the Utmost Evil," a huge 808 bass drum hit is thrown in just to add extra impact to an already brutal song. Other tracks offer progressive guitar breaks, shredtastic solos, anthemic melodies (the intro to the title track in particular), and the vocals of Justin Corser are showcased throughout, which is a good thing. He's the most versatile frontman since the Black Dahlia Murder's Trevor Strnad, shifting seamlessly between a Dani Filth-esque shriek and a guttural, low-end roar. The album is extremely well-produced and mixed, too, offering a full, rich bass sound not often heard in extreme metal. The songs are unmemorable once they're over, but that's a problem extreme metal has yet to solve even at the upper echelons, so young bands can be forgiven for thinking they can get by on mind-boggling displays of technical skill alone. If they keep making the ride this much fun, they can. ~ Phil Freeman