I do not think that I am exaggerating if I say that Enthroned are one of the most important names ever that hail from Belgium when it comes to (Black) Metal. I do follow them as from the very beginning (as a matter of fact, I was following most of the members’ former bands too, and then we’re talking about more than two and a half decades ago). I would refer to the net or one of the reviews I did in the past to have the (full) history of this Elite (Obsidium was posted on July 23rd 2012, Pentagrammaton on March 21st 2010; check the ‘Archive’-tab on the Concreteweb-site!).
This tenth (!) album was recorded with Phorgath (b), Nornagest (v, g), Menthor (d), ZarZax (g), and Neraath (g) and will be released in different editions: ‘normal’ CD, jewel-case CD-box (333 copies, with patch, flag and lighter???!!! I’d like to add a modest ‘WTF’!), ‘normal’ black vinyl, and splatter vinyl (100 copies).
Undersigned does appreciate everything this band did in their history, but I really enjoyed the band’s last full effort, Obsidium, for it must be one of Black Metal history’s strongest recordings ever. All right, I might be slightly exaggerating, but indeed it was a killer-record, and probably the best Enthroned-effort to date. What about this new piece of Dark Art?
Sovereigns opens with a short intro that reminds me to some soundtrack accompanying Orcs towards War (?), but it isn’t but an introduction to another bleak, grim journey through dimensions of post-nuclear un-life. And this because the aural visualisation of these war-hymns goes on in the vein of the last album. It means the very same un-ambience as we’re used to for more than two decades, yet seasoned with a progressed vision on sonic uncomfort. And what comes next isn’t but the glorification of sludgy, morbid and cacophonous Terror. Every single track is an amalgam of different tempos and structures (without dwelling into unstructured Pseudo-Chaos), combining the no-nonsense approach of the earliest years with a Post-vibe (that did characterise the former album too). It’s dissonant and full of contradictions, yet without freaked-out exaggeration, and harmonious in a mostly malicious sense. Besides, Enthroned come with those fine additional elements that cheer me up: Gregorian chants, narrative spells (samples), acoustics, malicious blast-parts, droning injections, industrialised noises, melodious counterparts, weird and discordant riffs, and so on. One cannot deny the variation and individuality of the songs, nor the majestic cohesion in between these compositions. That’s not new, of course, but seen the (modest) complexity of the tracks, it is nothing but appreciable. And that coherence goes for the whole album, even though there might be a slight difference in intensity in between the first and the second half of the album.
The sound, once again, is thick and foggy, like a concrete wall of pre-historical corpses (rotten flesh and mouldered bones). Like the song structures (compository song writing) and the performance, it isn’t old styled nor modern, and at the same time it is both of them. I do prefer Enthroned’s former full length, but of course it isn’t but my personal opinion. Still this is another milestone in the history of, well, not just the band, but in the history of Black Metal. Horns up!