Band:	The Enchanted
Album:	For Those Who Fall...
Style:	Melodic death metal, Pagan death metal
Release date:	2004

01. Where Fires Burn
02. Way Of The Warrior
03. In A Dream... (Of Waters Deep)
04. Under The Hall Of The Moon

The Enchanted seems to become quite renowned in the UK, but here, in the countryside of France, I've never ever heard of them. Now I have their new MCD "For Those Who Fall" in my hands and I realize the reasons why they start rising out of the masses... The album starts out with some of the most amazing riffing on "Where Fire Burns," a mix between old-school thrash and melodic thrash death a la At The Gates period Slaughter Of The Soul (obviously one of their biggest influences). You can find a reason to headbang every single second, after every single rhythm change or drum loop...

The following two songs have more of a darker feeling to them, something near to what Bathory could have done, with this raw and dirty production, but still brilliant 'sticky' riffs. These songs go a bit downhill compared to the first one and 'Under The Hall Of The Moon' though. On this last one the influence of the Swedish scene couldn't be more obvious, between At The Gates for the guitar playing and the melodies and Amon Amarth for the darkness, the vocals and the structure of the song. A brilliant song overall, that strikes forward relentlessly, until you have no neck anymore...

So basically the songs are very catchy, the music is brilliant, it sounds like they've been here since the beginning, but what lowers the rating is the vocals. The growlings are good, but the half-growls (I don't know how to call that) are very weak and even sometimes sound out of tune, and the few clean vocals are too quivering for me to appreciate. This is a real shame, for it turns an album that could have been breathtaking into a good release, but not more.

I'm now looking forward to a full-length album, hoping they'll work on their weak points. Anyway, all fans of At The Gates and thrash death in general should check them out. Those who like pagan and warrior stories, with tales of huge battles and bloody battlefields should give them a chance as well.