Enshadowed – Messengers Of The Darkest Dawn

Well, this CD was one of the first albums I got to review. And it took that long to get it online because it as a bit of a a pain in the ass. I didn’t know what to think of it at the first and after a good couple of spins I still wasn’t really able to make up my mind. Then I put it aside and started working on a few other reviews. When I took it out of the stack of promos afterwards, the penny did drop, so it turned out to be not a bad idea to put it away for a while, because this album is well worth it!

I hadn’t heard of the band before, but they are from Greece and have been releasing all kinds of demo stuff in the past. Yet they were kept hidden in the big wave of the underground, but with signing to Black Lotus Records there might well be a different future for them.

What we are dealing with here is an old fashioned fast blazing kind of black metal album. And it heavily remind me of Mayhem’s “Wolf’s Lair Abyss”, and that is quite a compliment. They sound quite similar to mid-period Mayhem mixed up with some Darkthrone influences too. Not very original indeed, since thousands of bands have been on that particular path before. But most of the bands fail immensely with imitating the style of the Norwegians, but Enshadowed seems to be quite good at it. Great fast riffing and equally fast drums are the main game on this CD, the sound is rather clear which allows you to follow all of the band’s instruments. It might not be an instant hit, it had to grow on me too, but you should do yourself a favour by checking this album yourself and give it a little time. This would appeal to fans of bands like Darkthrone, Mayhem and Armagedda.