Band : Enemy Of The Sun
Album title : Caedium
Label : Massacre
Distributor : Suburban
Release date : 28/05/2010
Release : CD

Taking its name from the 1993 Neurosis album, this German band was founded in 2006 by lauded producer Waldemar Sorychta (mostly active in the ‘90s with a load of Metal acts, and his credits include prime work on albums by the likes of Moonspell, Lacuna Coil, and Sentenced, to name but a few), whom had previously played guitar in bands like Despair, Grip Inc. and Voodoocult, and was/is currently a member of Goth Metal act Eyes Of Eden as well.

As members he recruited female bass player Alla Fedynitch (whom had been a touring member of Pain, has credits with Disillusion, Atrocity and Leaves’ Eyes, and also plays in Eyes Of Eden), and the lesser known drummer Daniel Zeman (formerly? of Furnaze) and singer Jules Näveri (holds credits  with such bands as Profane Omen, and Finland’s Misery Inc. and Burning Empire). In early 2007 this foursome produced a self-titled demo-CD which got real positive reviews (along with being honored with “Demo Of The Month” nominations from both Rock Hard and Metal Hammer magazines), got the band a support slot for Megadeth on their Hamburg show in June, and got ‘em signed to Massacre Records in Europe and to the End Records for North-American territories, with a European release of Shadows in December of the same year! Rock Hard continued their support of the band, heralding Shadows as “Album Of The Month”. During Summer 2008 the band performed at such high profile events as the Wacken Open Air, With Full Force and Summer Breeze Open Air festivals.

With Caedium (latin for “self-inflicted death”, not necessarily suidice…and the lyrics, the main theme being about Man killing mankind without realizing it, are inspired by the novel The Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons – in other words, the lyrics are socio-politically aware) the band brings its sophomore album…which continues in the same multi-influenced style as its predecessor and is therefore difficult to pin-point (of course, that’s why in some corners of the media the album got somewhat negative reviews…you see, in essence some music journalists are lazy bums at heart). In the bio of the album (also on the band’s MySpace page), it is written that ”…You simply cannot condense this kind of music into one or two words…,” (good thing we at Concrete Web don’t have to worry about a line…or 10…more), “…and that’s why that’s the most rewarding thing about it all…” It is, you know, it really is, at least for the listener with an open mind. The bio continues with “…All the way from the filthy Rock ‘n’ Roll rhythmics of “Paradigm”…” (personally I felt there was quite a Metal-upped Punk Rock tonality in the opening of that track) “…to “Castaways In The N.W.O.”’s Techno-Metal, or from the heavy, attitude-driven…” (say led-heavy Groove-laden) “…pieces like “Another End Of the Rainbow” and “the Golden Horizon” to the glimpses of classical guitar virtuoso throughout the album, Caedium is destined to leave a mark on a Metal scene that, comparing to the ambitions of Enemy Of The Sun, has been rather conformist.” (you certainly can say thàt again!) To complete the picture, one needs to also think “Progressive Thrash Metal”, Death/ Black influences in the vocals (although Näveri uses a very nice and clean melodic voice for a large part, a second singer will not only back him harmonically in a same style of voice, but also add screams and growls according to the needs of the song – I even though I heard three male voices at some moments), and adding that to the previous information, one already gets a nice picture of what the band might sound like.

Of course, the band’s been kind enough to post no less than 3 songs off the new album (alongside 3 others off the debut) at myspace.com/enemyofthesun (where you can also find a video of an extra song off the debut, filmed at the 2008 With Full Force festival). Having given the album several listening sessions before, and listening to it non-stop for the 4 hours it took to gather my thoughts (and info) for this review…and all of that happening with me feeling not even in the least a bit “bored” throughout the sessions (on the contrary, I enjoyed every minute of each 52 ½ session) or even one of the 14 songs (sorry, make that tracks, because the album opening “Lithium” and the closing “In Memoriam” are both instrumentals), I cannot react any other way than by adding Caedium to my year-lists!

98/100

Tony.