Ende
Emën Etan

French black metal heroes Ende is the band under my magnifying glass today, their third album Emën Etan has been running in my music player for a while now. It follows their very acclaimed The Story of I that has seen good reviews and that sort of things. In my research I have seen that this album has also been quite lauded by writers and such, they make claims of a standout album and such things. The artwork hardly stands out, it certainly looks old-fashioned black metal, so what about the album itself?

Well, I am not really that much of a black metal expert but I would say that these guys puts the finger on how I think black metal should sound. It is dark, raw, colourless, with sort of an icy feel to it. Cold dark screams like something from a deep hole in a frozen wasteland, it is as dark and cold as the artwork suggests. The vocals are good; the production feels a bit like it is looking backwards to the past. But the soundscape still feels quite fresh as this genre generally is quite tired and uncreative and these guys really put the finger on how little you actually need to do in order to make something more interesting in this genre. Sure there isn’t much in terms of variation through the songs, but is there ever in the black metal genre? And the lack of variation is offset by strong atmosphere and this cold dark depth the album has to offer.

Black, dark and cold – great atmosphere, great feel. Black metal as it should sound, that is more or less how this new album by Ende can be described. And it is a very good album as well, very appealing in my opinion. If you are a black metal fan you should not miss this album as it is really great, if you are less of a black metal fan chances are that you will still like this album. I would claim that Ende has put together a very interesting and quite exciting new album in this one, it could really be worth checking out.

Emën Etan is an appealing album with good songs and an appealing darkness. Perhaps it is not something earth shattering or anything but it is a rather strong album. I like it, thumbs up for Emën Etan.

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