Just after I reviewed their first CD I already have the second album of Enshadowed in my hands. And even before I read the biography or listened to any of the music I see changes. The logo has changed, the layout of their cover changed and Enshadowed seem to be a full band again.
And yes, it all did change indeed. After a piano intro we already hear the biggest change of all: the music is totally different. Where the debut album was a good grim and misanthropic black metal CD, this new album is predominantly death metal oriented black metal. I am not sure why this turn musical turn around happened so quickly, but it might have something to do with the new band members. At first I really thought it was a different band, but after a while I heard some of the old sound back. But not much is left of the old atmosphere and rawness. Their debut “Messengers Of The Darkest Dawn” reminded me a bit of the mid 90’s era of Mayhem (let’s call it the “Wolf’s Lair Abyss”-period). On this new album Enshadowed reminds me more of Behemoth and such new school fast death metal bands with a black metal edge to them. And overall it isn’t all that bad, and again very well played, but to say I really liked it? Maybe not so. I would suggest the band to quit death metal style and return back to their grim, raw and misanthropic black metal roots. What I did like on this CD, however, was the seventh track “Requiem Of Hatred (Jesus Christ Cage II)”, this is the second chapter of what seems to be the “Jesus Christ Cage”-conceptual series. This first part was definitely one of the best tracks of their debut album. The haunting and howling guitar work in the beginning of the track also make a return on this second take of the track. A nice CD again by these guys from Greece, but if it were up to me, I would love to see them return to their more Black Metal-oriented sound.
