Ænigmatum are a US death metal band and this is their second album.
Featuring a member of Azath and Torture Rack, Deconsecrate contains 45 minutes of technical and melodic death metal. The promo blurb states that Deconsecrate is for fans of Eucharist, The Chasm, At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, Necrophobic, Atrocity, and Opeth, and this provides a decent starting image.
The music is aggressive and complex, with winding rhythms, twisting melodies, and serpentine riffs. There’s a blackened edge here too, and even a touch of ferocious grindcore. The band are very talented musicians, and the level of technical dexterity displayed on Deconsecrate is a high one. The drums, guitars, and bass all frequently get their time to shine, sometimes simultaneously, and many of the creative ideas and flourishes that the musicians add to the music are striking. Despite this technical intricacy, the songs benefit from this approach rather than suffer from overload, and the band’s death metal vision is satisfying and enjoyable.
The songs merge melodic accessibility with esoteric impenetrability very well, resulting in songs that balance the two with skill. The classic Gothenburg style is well-represented on Deconsecrate, only it’s given a contemporary update and an injection of technical death metal. Tight and precise, yet imbued with energy and dynamic power, these songs are very moreish.
There’s a lot of content on Deconsecrate to unpack, and it is definitely worth the time investment to revisit this album multiple times in order to do this properly. The music has a way of slithering inexorably into your brain, and before you know it, Ænigmatum have become a new permanent fixture of your mental musical landscape.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 