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My Enchantment - SINpHONIC review



Reviewer:
7.8

5 users:
8.6
Band: My Enchantment
Album: SINpHONIC
Release date: 2005


01. Requiem
02. So Blood Became Wine
03. Dark Age
04. Enchanted
05. A Reflection Of Loneliness
06. Long Arm Of Death
07. Keeper
08. Between The Walls Of Insanity
09. Sinphonic
10. The Keys Of The Gate
11. Half Man, Half God
12. Machinery [bonus]

With Moonspell as the undeniable fore-runners of the Portuguese metal scene and their recent huge success, you'd expect more labels and record companies turning their heads to the shores of Portugal, looking for more talent. Apparently not, since a band such as My Enchantment is still unsigned. Nevertheless, My Enchantment doesn't allow themselves to be disencouraged by that sad fact and do things their own way, judging by the decision to release their debut "sINpHONIC" all by themselves.

The most important influences are Cradle Of Filth (roughly the Midian area) and Moonspell (to a lesser extent) with a few hints of (melodic) Death metal (vocals exclusively). The music is both vocal- and keyboard driven, although the guitars step up in front occasionally. Paulo Pereira, the deliverer of the vocals, has a nice set of styles, from Dani Filth-esque shrieks to clean vocals (which are not perfect, but rarely annoying) and growls. As I said earlier, the keyboards are also hugely influential on the sound and in my opinion; they should tone them down a bit. While they're not really going overboard with them as other bands tend to do, you're still a metal band for gods sake! Where's the riffing fury? Anyway, nobody probably agrees with me as bands that use keyboards are often quite popular, so I'll stop it now. They still throw in the occasional cool solo and lead guitar, so I'm not too bothered by it.

The most notable track is the fourth one, "Enchantment", which tells the tale of the flute player Dale that plays his hymns to God all day long, until the Devil comes to him in disguise and tricks him into playing the theme of the Devil instead. It's a good song, although it is not void of clichés (the parts of Dale, the innocent man, are clean and the voice of the Devil are of the harsh style). This song also represents the full album best in my opinion: well-executed and well-written (except for the occasional grammar mistake, but who cares about those?), but also completely according to 'the rules' of the genre and on the predictable side of things. The album doesn't hold my attention in each and every song, but the majority of the album is certainly above average.

Despite being in the scene since '99, the band has only released two demos and now this debut full-length, so the lack of an own sound is not something to hold them accountable for. I'm counting on a bit more originality for a next album though, and if they can combine that with the technical skills they already have, I'm sure they'll be able to please quite a lot of metalheads. "sINpHONIC" is already a big step in the right direction, so hopefully they can keep going forward.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 6
Production: 7





Written on 20.04.2009 by If you're interested in extreme, often emotional and underground music, check out my reviews. I retired from reviewing, but I really used to be into that stuff.


Comments

Comments: 2   Visited by: 44 users
20.04.2009 - 20:02
Rating: 10
BloodTears
ANA-thema
First of all, thanks for reviewing this album, Lucas.

I think I would agree with most of what you said, the rating is better than I was expecting.

One of the main reasons I like this band is because, like you said, they seem to have their own sound, despite having only released one full-length album. Granted I'm not a black metal fanatic, what I want from it usually comes with melody. My Enchantment grabbed my attention live and on record.

I also expect good things, even better, in the next album that should be out by the end of this year. I think they are mature as a band and have an unsusual ability to write good songs.
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29

Like you could kiss my ass.


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19.08.2009 - 03:41
Rating: 8
Njord
njord
Good review.. It's always nice to read the thoughs from a fair judge.. BloodTears or me couldn't did it because our rating will be affected by our passion for the band..

It's strange that you talked about My Enchantment without mentioning Dimmu Borgir, reference I listen everytime someone is talking about this band. Anyway, I agree when you say the band needs to be more original. Maybe their lack of originality it's the main fact why no label signed with them, despite their sound is easy listenable for the death/black metalheads and despite they have a good fan base.

For what I saw, the new material will more death than black and that's a good turning point because black metal in Portugal don't have much visibility.
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