Band:	Enochian Crescent
Album:	Black Church
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	2006
A review by:	KwonVerge

I Our Life In Wormwood Christ

01. Tatan
02. Tango Absinto
03. Chalk Face

II Our Life In His Kingdom

04. Thousand Shadows
05. Ghost Of Saturn
06. The Imperfect Vision

III Our Life In Servitude

07. Hendekagrammaton
08. Tridents Clash
09. Black Church

I am not new with the sound of Enochian Crescent, on the contrary, I quite enjoyed "Omega Telocvovim" and I was eager to find out how their next work would sound like. And thus the time arrived and "The Black Church Psalmbook" was released in order to, apparently, fill our world with darkness.

I haven't listened to their debut album, but judging from "Omega Telocvovim" I think that Enochian Crescent managed to release their most mature and well-conceived album up to date since it seems to have everything and in the ideal quantities. They remain a black metal band for sure, no-one can deny it, but the expression of their black metal soundscapes vary from song to song, tempo to tempo and generally through the whole duration of the album, yet without tending to sound too much of everything, they harmonize their ideas in a really good way with the final outcome flows as one. There are times when they express themselves in a more traditional and raging Norwegian black metal way, whereas the heavier passages are not missing for sure, the melody is present enough times and some more death metal driven chaotic passages in the vein of Morbid Angel appear from time to time to offer another sense of brutality in the nocturnally burdened atmosphere. Some sing-along arena-like passages are really brilliant, they raise your adrenaline to the highest levels, at least for me!

What someone may notice easily is that the "empty" space between "Omega Telocvovim" and "The Black Church Psalmbook" was worth the waiting simply because Enochian Crescent prove that they have matured in terms of song-writing offering some really mature pieces of unearthly music and that their musical skills have increased, something really positive of course! The guitar work is definitely soulful and well-executed, from the most simple yet inspired riff or acoustic passage to the most quality brutal or more black metal driven riff and wonderful heavy metal oriented guitar solo. The rhythm section keeps the groove and pulse of the compositions in the most ideal way with both the drumming and the bass lines being vivid in the final mix of the album. The vocals is another strong part of the sound of Enochian Crescent on this very specific album, they vary from more clean ones to howling black metal screams and from recites to more grunting or obscure-sounding ones, keeping the interest of the listener to high levels with their varying and vivid interpretation.

The album is not so lengthy, it consists of 9 compositions and it lasts less than 40 minutes and in this specific situation I find it something really positive because the ideas are inspired and presented in a really good way without reaching the point to start boring the listener, not at all!

"The Black Church Psalmbook" is a really good album flowing as one that won't disappoint the fans of this specific side of extreme metal music, at least i think so, give it a chance!