Band:	Enthral
Album:	Prophecies Of The Dying
Style:	Melodic black metal
Release date:	May 1997
A review by:	Troy Killjoy

01. Salig Er Den Som Lir
02. Prophecies Of The Dying - Kundalini (Serpent Power)
03. Prophecies Of The Dying - Part II
04. A Divine Tragedy
05. Enchanted By The Serpent Spell
06. Thy Passionate Despair
07. Awaiting The Rise Of The Forestgod [2010 re-release bonus]

Melodic black metal
Norway
Frostscald Records

Line-up on the CD:
Kjetil Hektoen - vocals, drums/percussion
Gunnhild Bratset - guitars
Martin Rafoss - bass, vocals
Ingrid Skretting - vocals (guest)


Prophecies Of The Dying, originally released in 1997, is a true testament to Norway's Enthral. After 13 long years the album retains all of its bitter scorn and doom and gloom, due in part to the predominantly anti-religious lyrical content, poignant even after more than a decade of releases sending us the same memo. One might even go so far as to suggest by now that anti-Christianity is Norway's message in a bottle...

What needs to be said about the instruments begins and ends with Martin Rafoss's bass lines. They crowd "the Prophecies" with an unmitigated essence of synergy, seamlessly metamorphosing all seven tracks into one prolonged song. Rarely does a bass guitar receive such respect in the recording studio (and come to think of it, not many reviews praise bass work outside of calling it sufficient or adequate), but this album is all the better for it. It's hard to say how the rest of the instruments would have added up without the weight of the bass: Bratset's multifarious melodies and soothing acoustic passages would have felt flatter and less playful; Hektoen's constant blastbeats would have sounded hollow and malnourished - not to mention how the vocals (both Hektoen's shrieks and Skretting's "supreme soprano vocals") would have lacked any foundation.

Bass work aside, there is enough magic here to keep a variety of metalheads interested. Soprano songstress Ingrid Skretting's vocals add a chilly Gothic aura, while the already progressive nature of the songs is helped out by the fact that the hour-long affair seems to last but a fraction of the total playing time. Bratset's adventurous guitar frolicking makes for some of black metal's most intricate melodies, comparable to the likes of Immortal, Dissection, and Vreid.

It would appear as though effective melodies and raw aggression make for quite the retort these days.


Website: http://www.myspace.com/trueenthral