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Review:
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Enoria were formed in 2003 out of the ashes of the
band Soulless by Fabrice (composer/drummer), Christophe
(guitar/engineer) and Sylvain (keys/manager). They were
joined by guitarist Pascal (guitar/artwork) and recorded
a demo in 2005. Unhappy with the results and the then singer,
they went into hibernation while Christophe built his own
studio. Then they finally found the singer they were looking
for in Marie and work started on this debut album. The results
are atmospheric gothic metal in a similar vein to bands
like The Gathering. Marie has a pure semi operatic voice
(with occasional full operatics) that provides the perfect
compliment to the music. I found similarities to bands like
The Smiths where the melancholic vocals float and soar over
the backdrop of guitar lines (not the normal chord riffage),
but here you have the addition of Sylvain’s ethereal keys
to ramp up the atmosphere. The music is mesmerising, deep
and almost hypnotic, but always very melodic, and superbly
produced and performed as you would expect by such experienced
musos. Marie is joined at times by Fabrice’s bass voice,
which shows you can be deep and menacing without resorting
to growling. The quality is maintained throughout this collection
of 12 songs (plus an outro); highlights include the dreamy
‘Spiral of Life’, the eerie ‘The Sentinel’, the dramatic
‘Between Two Worlds, the otherworldly ‘Eternal Sleep’, and
the ominous ‘Ultimate Solution’. If you like your music
melancholic, melodic, and mesmeric then this is a wonderful
listen and can be easily purchased from CD Baby, for more
info they can be found on their Myspace site, http://www.myspace.com/enoriaband
, 8.5 out of 10
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