Band:	Enshine
Album:	Origin
Style:	Gothic doom metal
Release date:	May 15, 2013
Guest review by:	angel.

01. Stream Of Light
02. Refraction
03. Cinders
04. Astrarium
05. Nightwave
06. Ambivalence
07. Immersed
08. Above Us
09. Constellation

I start with saying that Origin as a whole has influences from early Katatonia. However I can't give a precise hint where exactly I hear it in the songs, though there is a whole melancholic atmosphere which reminds of early Katatonia works. Yet it differs so much because Katatonia, back in the day, sounded much more doomier, harsher and of course very original.

Listeners will notice the certain death growling vocals in all the songs except in the instrumental ones and "Cinder ", which only contains clean vocals. There are also some small amounts of whispering vocals and choir sounds in the background in some moments. I certainly can say that both the whispering vocals and the choir sounds add more feeling to the whole atmosphere of the album.

The solos in most songs are much more melodic, rather than being the typical melodic death metal solos, as we have heard before in melodic death metal albums; in this sense this album differs so much from most other melodic death metal. The rhythm guitar sounds are not very harsh, they're just there and well placed with a fair choice of progressions, and they fit very well with the other instruments, same as the vocals. Some songs start off with clean guitars which are just well-based intros for them.

I think the drums were established with more deliberation behind the guitar and bass lines. One such instance is the song "Nighwave", I couldn't imagine such drumming coming after the clean guitars, and the atmospheric sound of the lead guitar transitions the whole song into another harsher phase, which has been repeated exactly before that occurrence.

Origin contains three instrumental songs, the most interesting of which is also the longest, "Constellation". In fact it's interesting in comparison to the other instrumental songs on this album which are more atmospheric, rather than being metal songs. But independently it's an average instrumental song with good atmospheric elements and post rock/metal influences. It has synth lines accompanied with quite heavy rhythm guitars, and repeating melodic guitars with some pretty melodies accompanying it on keyboards.

The lyrics are quite enjoyable and revolve around isolation, inner thoughts and emotions, dreams of getting away, and mixed with a sense of melancholy and remembering the past while trying to revise them. This is just how I perceive them, though I might be wrong.

In the end I should add that Origin owes its success of being one of the top albums in 2013 to having very pretty melodies, touchy atmospheric post metal components, well-established vocals and fair lyrics. Although it may not blow away everyone, especially those who have already heard many different types of doom metal albums previously, this is still a quite enjoyable album. Origin is a throwback to the origins of doomy sounding bands like Katatonia, but with a more modern approach; or as some believe, gothic. It's neither very original, nor very unoriginal, and it's no masterpiece, but the Enshine guys did their job quite acceptably.