ENSHADOWED - Stare Into the Abyss review

ENSHADOWED - Stare Into the Abyss

Odium Records





Although this black metal band hails from Greece their sound on here is pure old school Scandinavian. ENSHADOWED are not a new band at all. The band originally started out back in the late 90's. It wasn't until the 2000's when the band started putting out some official releases, as opposed to demos. 


It wasn't until the mid to late 2000's when the band finally got a cohesive line-up of N.e.c.r.o (aka: Dionysis Dimitrakos) on guitar. Golgotha (aka: George T.) on bass and Serpent on vocals. I'm already familiar with Dionysis Dimitrakos work in another Greek black metal act, BURIAL HORDES. 


Just for the record this is not the first time I've heard a Greek black metal act pay tribute to the Scandinavian hordes of old. Although personally I like the classic Greek black metal sounds of old aka: Hellenic Black Metal. I'm talking about bands like early VARATHRON and ROTTING CHRIST to just name a few. There are so many more on my fave list. 


But here we are with ENSHADOWED's fourth full length and it does conjure up the dead souls or yore. Right from the start you realize you're in for something truly cold and unforgiving. Throughout the album you're treated to sounds reminiscent of early Swedish as well as Norwegian acts. There's plenty of thrashy guitar blasting. You've got your typical blastbeat drum work along with some decent fillers. 


Toss in a vocal performance which is totally harsh some times while doing that speak/chant style. Honestly this sounds like a cross between FUNERAL MIST and MAYHEM. Also I'm thinking more towards the latter as far as influences go. As the title says, Stare Into the Abyss, but for me I've dived in head first. 


http://www.odiumrex.com/

https://enshadowedofficial.bandcamp.com/


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