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Enclave > Paradise of Putrefaction > Reviews > oneyoudontknow
Enclave - Paradise of Putrefaction

Progressive Dark Funeral with keyboards? - 55%

oneyoudontknow, April 11th, 2009

Perhaps we should be grateful that bands are finally taking steps into more progressive and advanced realms in the black metal genre and do not always rely on the 'old and true' approach. No more endless and monotonous blast orgies, endless repetition of riffs etc. etc. Yes, we should cry out in relief that there is some movement out of this dark valley of "simplicity is beauty" towards a brighter and shinier future... or would this be a Fata Morgana?

Enclave try something new on their first and only release, which is already a full-length; 1000 copies. The music is by no means simple structured. Influences from a variety of genres appear and a significant would be the ambient one. As the whole album vibrates with contrasts in atmosphere and tempo, this aspect in particular would offer the greatest range possible. On the one hand there is the extreme black/death metal (Dark Funeral, Behemoth and similar ones) and on the other calm moments which work as a counter-point; yet, these would appear on a quite surprising scale, as the songs generally offer a whole set of them. Symphonic elements play a role, too, but they remain often in the background and work rather as a texture in the background, while the guitars and vocals have the dominating role on this recording. There is some sphere of progressiveness hanging over the whole release, especially when it comes to the song-writing and the use of interludes as well as variation of motives.

Final bits and bytes
The Polish band set the levels up to somewhere high in the skies and fails in their attempt to actually reach it. Modern, progressive, full of variation, switches in tempo and all of these aspects that reviewers tend to criticize on legions of albums from the underground scene, can actually be found on this piece of music, yet Enclave did a bad job in combining them. The songs are confusing, occasionally overloaded or without a clear structure, lacking something of a red line. Even though Enclave are most certainly able to handle their instruments, the songs appear not in such a way as to they could use their skills in a useful way. The music is listenable, but it simply fails to fascinate me.