Enterprise Earth – Death: An Anthology
Enterprise Earth – Death: An Anthology
MNRK Heavy
Release Date: 02/02/2024
Running Time: 59:00
Review by Rory Bentley
8.5/10
Ah the sweet breeee of that first Deathcore review of the year, you can’t beat it! As I’ve said a whole bunch of times over the last couple of years, Deathcore is no longer the sole preserve of tattooed oafs that just want naughty beatdowns and sweary mosh-calls (I definitely fall into this category as well), thanks to bands with many more strings to their blood-covered bow, like the rather splendid Enterprise Earth.
Everyone’s on board with the whole Symphonic Deathcore gimmick largely thanks to high quality releases and the swoon-worthy cheekbones of Will Ramos, but Enterprise Earth are a band that is still intent to branch out and go their own way with the genre. “Death: An Anthology” rarely stays in one place for very long during its runtime and that is to the band’s credit and my gratitude because I was a little uneasy about listening to an hour-long Deathcore album multiple times let me tell you!
The pompous orchestration and beautiful guitar harmonies of ‘Abyss’ are the measuring stick I will use to beat other band’s intro tracks with this year. It feels completely integral to the flow of the record, is super memorable and compliments the savage ear-bashing that the next track is about to deliver. There’s probably about 5 intro tracks in the entire pantheon of Metal since ‘Battery’ came out in 1986 that actually justify their existence in my opinion, the rest of them are usually a way to make a band’s boomer-ass Thrash 101 riffs stand out, while being laughably presented as ‘musical growth’. But without the sweetness of ‘Abyss’ one cannot truly appreciate the sourness of the absolutely vile ‘Face of Fear’. The ugly, discordant mathcore riffing and bowel loosening chugs are much closer to the mind-melting Tech-Metal of Frontierer than Dimmu Borgir, with spin kicks one might expect of a band from this scene. Somehow out of this cacophony comes a soaring cleanly sung chorus which doesn’t sound like a jarring shift or a watered-down attempt to suck in Bad Omens fans.
‘The Reaper’s Servant’ keeps the momentum going with a less chaotic, more focused attack with the kind of nasty bottom end that Sir Mix A Lot would write a novelty song about. Despite adhering to a more conventional melodic Deathcore template, the musicianship and skin-flying guitar heroics are more than enough to stop this being by-the-numbers. That and the fact that the album is all over the place and absolutely bonkers in the best way. ‘Accelerated Demise’ sees the band nail bonkers Jazz/Prog-tinged Metal that would sit nicely on a Between the Buried and Me record and ‘Blood and Teeth’ manages to go full on lighter-waving power ballad while still including some devastating moments of gut-wrenching savagery.
I’ve seen some corners of the net having a whinge about how all over the place this record is, with some calling it unfocused, however I couldn’t disagree more. For a Deathcore band to be so challenging and willing to splice genres so brazenly in a scene that many pronounced creatively bankrupt a decade ago should be applauded. By the time Matt Heafy makes his now comedically obligatory guest appearance on the roaring closet ‘Curse of Flesh’ I’m left with a satisfying feeling of having my arse kicked while my brain has had a decent workout as well. The Deathcore renaissance continues!
TRACKLISTING:
01. ABYSS
02. FACE OF FEAR
03. THE REAPERS SERVANT
04. SPINELESS
05. KING OF RUINATION
06. CASKET OF RUST
07. I DIVINE
08. MALEVOLENT FORCE
09. ACCELERATED DEMISE
10. BLOOD AND TEETH
11. CURSE OF FLESH
LINE-UP:
Gabe Mangold [guitar, backing vocals, production]
Travis Worland [vocals]
Brian Zackey [drums]
Dakota Johnson [bass]
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Rory Bentley and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of said party. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
