Origin

Atoma have now decided to put themselves on ice for a while, just before releasing a new album, and since there is no Slumber since 2011, we must now focus on this band Enshine. And we only have two things to listen to: their single called "Brighter" and their new full-length "Origin". And this is what happens when you join Jari Lindholm's genious with the amazing voice of Sebastien Pierre. First of all, I would like to give a quick and brief opinion about this song "Brighter", which is, after all, a part of this album (it is available for free as a digital bonus track) and a greater and deeper view over "Origin".

This song "Brighter" is, in my opinion, a song that deserved to be in the album "Origin", but for some reasons it is not there. However, it is, in my opinion, the most beautiful song Enshine have ever made. The keyboards in the beginning are simply amazing. Sebastien enters the song with a pure and deep growl, and he keeps alternating between whispers and his guttural, which gives a great touch in the music. A nice music to be released before the album.

The full-length "Origin" is a complete masterpiece. We don't have another Enshine's album to compare with this one, but it is not really needed. This first album just blew up my mind. And I'm glad they blew my mind in their first album, but yes, they did it. We always listen to a lot of sounds that are not usually heard, a lot of experimentalism in their songs, a lot of out-of-Earth sounds, which is always really hard to do. Sometimes, the bands exaggerate when it comes to the keyboards, but not Enshine. They always achieve the perfect moments to lay down some guitar riffs, to start with the keyboards or to enter Pierre's growls. There is always a perfect balance between the elements, and that is great. I simply love the smooth beginnings of the songs when they envolve a relaxing guitar or synths. This time I can honestly say this is one of the greatest albums of this year. I have no doubt. It doesn't matter whether they're really famous whether they only have two thousand fans. This is quality. The instrumental songs are simply magnificent, especially "Immersed". I also love it when Sebastien took a nap in the song "Cinders" to let the melodies come to the outside.

The songs are really unique, because not everyone writes metal regarding the Space. Atoma had a few of these elements Enshine use, but Enshine has one thing they didn't: the voices by Sebastien that are simply too good.

It is always good to see a band with a nice evolution. It always nice to see a band getting better and better from its roots. But what's even better is to see a band that has an origin like this band had. It's even better to see a band that starts up with this amount of quality. One of the bands I still remember that managed something like this was Insomnium in "In The Halls Of Awaiting". We can only hope this duet between Jari and Sebatien keeps doing great music like these and that it gets even better and better with the passing of the years. This is what happens when we fuse a musician from Sweden with a musician from France. The result is right in front of your eyes...

Being a huge fan of Slumber's output Fallout from 2004, I was naturally very excited for the upcoming album that was to be named Resonance. The very unique take on atmospheric doom/death metal was something that just struck me as being damn near polished to perfection. When the band called it quits right on the verge of releasing their second album I was naturally struck with deep grief. Luckily, I had stored away demo tracks that the band had released on their myspace profile during the recording sessions, and could cling to these like an orphan clinging onto the worn old pictures of the deceased parents for comfort during restless nights. When the band announced that two new bands would rise from the ashes of Slumber, I could only hope that at least one of these would maintain the elements from Slumber that I so yearned to digest aurally once more. It truly seems Jari was the mastermind behind the drug within the sound of Slumber, the chemist behind the revolutionary formula that hinted such greatness. Origin is truly one of the greatest musical creations of all time. Of all time.

Perfect and crystal clear production. Flowing yet ravaging guitar leads on top of amazing chord progressions supported by powerful (and almost even punchy) bass lines. Everything is simply done right, and while sitting through this album for the first time the single thought that constantly went through my mind was "Yes.". A primary influence that come to mind is Katatonia, but Origin is so much more powerful. It's like the rainy autumn days of urban Katatonia have been replaced with violent and colorful supernova spectacles in the sky palette. A neighboring galaxy swirling through the night sky in collision course with our own dear planet, calmly nearing and slowly bringing the earthly viewer lying in a lush meadow closer and closer to the blissful void. Everything is bright and colorful, everything is beautiful.

Enshine - Cinders:

"Don´t wake up
We are dreaming again
Of a world of fire

Open your eyes
And your world will become
Void like mine "

Musically, we're still within the atmospheric doom/death metal genre. Yet there's something more in the mix now, perhaps some post-rock and some synthetic and electronic elements. This album has to be experienced, and is in my opinion the greatest musical release since Above The Weeping World by Insomnium. I won't compare it to Atoma - Skylight more than to state that this is how it's done. This is truly an otherwordly masterpiece, and I hope that this duo will produce a lot more of this during years to come.