Enshadowed - Messengers Of The Darkest Dawn
Black Lotus Records
Black Metal
8 songs (47'01)
Release year: 2002
Enshadowed, Black Lotus
Reviewed by Crims

After releasing quite a few demos, the Greek Black Metal band Enshadowed has released their first full-length. Now, when you think of Greek Black Metal, you probably assume that these guys sound like Rotting Christ… right? Wrong! Enshadowed play Black Metal in the vein of Abigor, Darkthrone, Marduk, and to a lesser extent, Naglfar; so what we are offered here is raw Black Metal, with no keys or Gothic elements.

Messengers Of The Darkest Dawn starts out sort of bland. Monotonous blast beats pound away with barely intelligible vocals, done almost exactly like on Channeling The Quintessence of Satan by Abigor. The production is raw, once again done a lot like Abigor. So far I’m uninterested with the first real track, War And Damnation until the last section of the song comes in. During the last section we have more mid-paced (but still fast) drumming, mostly double bass, with some improved Black Metal styled melodies. So this gives me the impression that Enshadowed may have something to offer after all. After the more promising Suicidal Lunacy, which features some punishing drum and riff runs, things start to pick up. With the track Northbound the potential of Enshadowed is clearly displayed. Almost clever song arrangements are mixed with quality melodies and the required overall atmospheric effect needed for most Black Metal bands to be successful. Enshadowed continue to improve with From A Carnal To A Spiritual Fist, not to mention the highly progressive and more clever closing tracks, which are not only very long, but feature some of the only instances where Enshadowed write something truly unique on this release. The vocals on a whole aren’t bad, the phrasing is often good, but the style could be more original.

On display on Messengers Of The Darkest Dawn is potential more than anything. I can name a few occasions where the song structure was really interesting, or a certain black metal riff created a satisfying atmosphere, or when a blast beat run was perfectly placed, however, these things don’t happen nearly enough, especially on the first half of the CD for Messengers Of The Darkest Dawn to really impress me. Also, the fact that Enshadowed really don’t have anything in their music that says, “This is Enshadowed” and not a hundred other Black Metal bands also hurts. I would recommend this release to Black Metal fans only, but this is not a must buy situation as there is nothing outstanding here, slightly above average (barely on most tracks) is the phrase of the day with this release; although I enjoyed Northbound and Jesus Christ Cage a lot more than the other tracks. The production and feeling is most likely too raw for casual Metal fans to find listenable as well, but as I mentioned, the last couple of tracks and certain melodies may appeal just enough to Brutal Black Metal fans to warrant a purchase.

Killing Songs :
Northbound, From A Carnal To A Spiritual Fist, Jesus Christ Cage
Crims quoted 60 / 100
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