Style: Black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: The embodiment of natural selection - anything and anyone who does not pass muster will be eliminated
Thoughts: There is some music that is so mechanical and so precise that it sounds like the embodiment of a inorganic beast that has a singular vision: kill every living thing standing in its way. There are very few albums that meet the criterion for this to happen, but Enemy of Man fits this description to perfection.
Each one of the riffs has a combination of strange chord progressions, hypnotic repetition, and an inhuman dissonance. The music is predictable, yet it somehow defies expectations at the same time. The riffs feel like they were written to put the listeners mind into the uncanny valley - a place where the difference between machine and human is so close it's creepy.
The vocals retain this inhuman character. Sounding more like a synthetic being than anything human, M.'s vocals continue the treacherous descent into the valley. Is this a creation of humans or is this something where AI has finally taken over and created music for it's liking rather than anything that a human could create?
I've saved the drumming for last. The drumming in Kriegsmaschine one of my favorite performances in recent memory. It's no secret that both M and Darkside are the members of Mgla as well, but whereas that band focuses on hypnotic riff and trance like states - Kriegsmaschine allows Darkside to truly explore what he is capable on the drums.
Much like Mgla the devil is in the details. There are so many small fills, so many small drum accents that add immeasurable depth to the music that would be lost with a lesser drummer. The main difference here is that there are points where Darkside is allowed to truly go all out. He holds nothing back and the restraint that is seen throughout Mgla is no more. It's here that my jaw drops.
Be it an insane blast beat, or a tom roll that defies what humans should be capable of, or hell, even a standard back beat that is so ridden with accents that it's impossible to ignore. Darkside is without fault on this album. The album is elevated to heights that it could never achieve without him on drums, this is a clinic - plain and simple.
Enemy of Man is a dense album. It is difficult to break into at first because of how inhuman it sounds and how impenetrable the music comes off. This was not written for anyone but the band, and that is what makes this album great. There are even small touches in the vinyl that are not present in the digital version. Just drop the needle, you'll hear them the instant the album starts.
Written March 6th 2024
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