Illuminations of Vile Engorgement

I heard a lot of things about Enmity. People either like or hate this band with no comments ever wandering in between the realm of the two. While the band has earlier and later releases, this is the album that always seems to grab everyone's attention the most. And if you listen to the album, you can see why. It's not a typical metal album. I mean hell, this is a very awkward release just for music in general. And for all intents and purposes, it rides the line between whitenoise and extreme metal so hard to the point where the line is stretched and thinned so much that sometimes you question if Enmity are even playing music at all.

If I could (attempt) to say anything about Illuminations of Vile Engorgement, I suppose the only real thing that could be said is that the only reason why this album has such a weird array of praise to negativity is mainly because well... it's brutal and not much else. It's a big slop of sound through in and through out. The album is so genuine in just being heavy without even giving any real focus or question as to if the listener is bored beyond reason or would much rather blast a shotgun shell through his skull before the album's closure. The only thing that truly sets away the next noise that conjuncts to the next is mainly just from the occasional slam (breakdown) in the album. The slams are fun albeit they're catchy, but it's the only reason I believe why I don't just hate this waste of plastic of an album. This album is not death metal just in its focus to be heavy and nothing more. This is death metal in its most laziest form possible. I forgot to mention one thing about the slams; when they're played, they barely sound any different from the last slam played 2 songs before. What's the point if that's the only redeeming thing? Go listen to a real slam album (anything by Epicardiectomy, Cerebral Incubation, Cephalotripsy...) than waste time on this.

Moving onto the riffs, they're all just tremolo up and down on the same fret usually outlasting the entire song until they figure it's time to move onto separating that same riff into the following song. Not that the riffs really matter, you'll barely hear anything this Arizona two piece is playing buried underneath the fog of vocals and extremely loud drums. The album follows this formula for nine tracks of the eleven total that make up this entire jamboree. Two tracks of which one is a forgettable interlude, and the other being an actually worthwhile outro that I will get to in a little bit. But first, let's talk some more about how mindbogglingly repetitive all this is. It's almost as if their guitarist was unable to play past four different riffs or even was capable of retaining a memory past being able to play four different riffs. Those freaking vocals too, man. They're the most annoying thing. He sounds like he's gurgling a choking dose of vodka in a big jacuzzi with the water jets turned on full blast. The vocals almost never stop and they sound to be double tracked in a lot of places which make it even worse. They nearly sound like goregrind vocals have it be the lack of special effects that goregrind vocals usually use.

Drums are horribly mixed. While the bass drum is just right, the snare is way too loud. When the snare is played, the guitar is about as audible as one of those mosquito ringtone things. The guitar is only to be heard when a slam is played granted there's enough chunk and meat on the riffs backed with the fact that only the bass drum is played during the slams on this album. It's probably the only worthwhile moments a typical death metal fan would have within this enormous slop of sound. As for bass guitar, hahahaha. Don't even ask (no, you can't hear it).

Now, this review may seem very negative based on the array of words that you've already read. But there's a reason why I don't fully hate this record... there's a reason that exists in me that for some reason keeps me away from fully shamming it. And that reason is because, well I like this kind of music, but this is absolutely not the right way to do it nor the completely wrong way. Yes, I think this album is shit, but there's a small part of captivation about it that remotely keeps it away from me completing just chucking it off as something I never want my ears exposed to again. As I write this, this is about my fourth time listening to it. Listening to this album is like having a canker sore on the inside of your cheek. You know you should stop poking it with your tongue, but you can't stop. That's how it is for me. This album is like white noise; all songs blend in to each other at such an insane rate to where nothing barely even stands out unless it's one of the two instrumental songs or the occasional slam the band like to play.

Speaking of which, the final track is an instrumental piece played on acoustic guitar. Beautiful ending put to the end of a heavy record. Almost seems out of place, but let alone it's probably my favorite song on the entire release. Ironic?

In my reviews, I usually end the last sentence with a big recommendation on who would like this album. But I can't this time, Enmity are a really weird band. I couldn't imagine recommending this album to anyone and have it somehow not lead to a regret later on down the line. I can only suggest that you listen to this record and just ask yourself if you like what you hear.