WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ENFOLD DARKNESS?

Enfold Darkness have sure changed a lot since we last featured them in May of 2009 (side note: what I wrote about Sumerian Records’ business model nearly three years ago is still so true). When listening to their new track “Lairs of the Ascended Masters” currently streaming at Decibel I thought to myself, “Gee, I don’t remember the band sounding this blackened,” so just to be sure I wasn’t going crazy I went over to their MySpace page (’cause you know whatever’s there is gonna be old) and listened to some older stuff. While the older material has more elements of black metal than I remembered, it’s also got a lot more tech-death, and it’s the “death” influence that’s almost completely gone on the new song.

Here’s founder/guitarist Matt Brown on the band’s ever-evolving sound:

Our debut record, Our Cursed Rapture, was released in stores in 2009. However, it was written and recorded largely during 2006 and 2007. We feel that the sound of the band has changed considerably since this time period, and we are very excited to be sharing this creation with the world… In the beginning, Enfold Darkness was primarily a thrash band. Since our humble beginnings in 2005, we have gone from that to blackened death metal, to finally what we are hoping will be our original and hallmark sound: that of technical black metal…

That totally makes sense — it’s common for bands to morph and change over time until they finally settle on their own unique sound, especially for bands that get started when they’re very young and are still finding their voice. And I’d agree with Brown’s labeling of the band’s new sound as “technical black metal,” too; kinda reminds me a bit of Keep of Kalessin but without as much theatricality and long blond hair. Check it out here and let us know what you think.

-VN