Astute metal pundits have been tipping Melechesh for glory for some time, not least due to their near-flawless catalogue to date.
Much as Behemoth kickstarted 2014 with the career-defining inferno of The Satanist, Enki must surely represent the moment that mainman Ashmedi and his cohorts mount the battlements and proclaim their prowess to a wider audience.
Impossibly grandiose and yet always in touch with extremity’s pulse, these songs ripple with muscular triumphalism. Evoking the ethereal cries of the Middle-Eastern ancients via epic extreme metal is hardly a new idea, but this band’s intuitive mastery of groove and dynamics and their grasp of the subtle difference between the fantastic and the arcane continue to make them a unique proposition. Tempest Temper Enlil Enraged and Multiple Truths proudly bring the sand-ravaged blast, but Enki’s alien charisma has a potential reach far beyond the underground. It climaxes with The Outsiders: 13 minutes of majesty and spite that re-imagines Maiden’s Powerslave as an elaborate prog metal hymn to the reawakening of some vast, mythical and adversarial empire. As with everything else here, it reeks of victory.
Via Nuclear Blast
