Date Released: October 28th 2022. Record Label: Electric Spark. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
Apathy Awakened: Tracklisting
1.Enigma 05:36
2.Apathy Awakened 06:18
3.Debita Nostra 07:00
4.Augury 06:13
5.The Elusive 08:24
6.Moira 05:54
7.The Insatiable 05:03
8.Hemera’s Call 05:14
9.Transient Endeavours 05:00
Members
Tom Adams
Wessel Speelman
Alex Schenkels
Yuma van Eekelen
Review
Apathy Awakened is the debut album from Progressive Metal/Grunge unit ENMA who are made up of musicians from the Netherlands Rock/Metal scene. The band takes influence from bands such as Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, TOOL and OPETH. There’s a few nods to Doom Metal but ENMA firmly operate within the confinements of Grunge and Prog Metal.
The band play some excessive Prog Rock/Metal sounds throughout the album with the vocals being from the modern day world of Gloom Metal. ENMA take a TOOL-esque identity within the first few songs on the album with Enigma, Apathy Awakened and Debita Nostra allowing the band to impress with their highly confident melodic style of Grunge, Hard Rock, Prog Metal and Psychedelic interludes with deeply emotional lyrics especially on Apathy Awakened.
ENMA have quite a talent of playing 90's Classic Grunge sounds and matching it with a more complex modern day Progressive feel. Sometimes airing into the realm of Post-Doom or Post-Metal that is quite a good fit for ENMA to aim for. The music is always melodic, technically complex but always remaining creatively impressive.
The vocal delivery is most definitely inspired by TOOL and Alice In Chains but ENMA still stand on their own creative merits. Sullen Psychedelic tones are another strength of this album with heavy guitars and intelligent drumming all building up for quite an exciting listen. Sometimes ENMA should adapt a “less is more” approach on the later stages of the album but this still remains a uniquely powerful album especially when the band play sublime extended Progressive Guitar grooves which sure does “get the motor running” if you’re a dedicated follower of bands such as this.
Other great tracks on the album include: Augury, The Elusive, Moira, The Insatiable and Transient Endeavours.
Apathy Awakened is perhaps a hard album to listen to at first but there’s something dark and delicious about the whole record which is quite bold and even downright original that ENMA deserve credit for. With fantastic production values that gives the album a ferocious and aggressive edge, ENMA have released a superb album with Apathy Awakened and will have no trouble making a name for themselves within the Underground Grunge and Prog Metal scenes.
Excellent and Highly Recommended.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Electric Spark for the promo.
Apathy Awakened is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl via Electric Spark
Links:
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