A HEALTHY FEAR

The likely reason there has been so little attention to this album, both here and elsewhere, is simply that fans of Gifts From Enola are still not sure what to make of this album. A Healthy Fear marks a sizeable leap from the previous GFE formula that played more to loud/soft dynamics using post-hardcore/post-metal instrumentation that melts away into progressive and spacey interludes, often coming to an emotive climax at the end of an album that was built around repurposed monologues (to great effect, however pretentious that sounds.) The point always was found in thier divurgence from the harder metal roots and eventual coming to a great height. Here they go full circle and back to a far more solid post-hardcore/post-metal sound, and what for that genre is something of a wall-of-sound approach (a levelling out othe loud/soft dynamic, certainly.) At first I found the album slightly grating in fact, with the crunchy textures of the guitars staying at what was once climax-level in the previous formula for much of the album. It's a good kind of dissonance, though, and once you can sumberge your listening into it you can appreciate the subtlety (I think of ulcerate as another example, but that is an entirely different genere and on an entirely different order of sonic pain and gain.) Oh yeah: now there are lyrics throughout... so that's new too, and while I never missed them before the lyrics work perfectly here.

This album in particular, and GFE in general, evoke a special sort of emotion quite effectively. There is angst, to be sure, but it doesn't come across as the immature stereotype of the post-hardcore sound. It helps that they don't feel like they are taking themselves too seriously. The general aesthetic is a sort of coming to moments of clarity through dissonance, not unlike coming to peaks of consciousness though intoxication. I highly recommend giving this one a spin or two.

4.5 rounded up because it masters what it wants to do, and because I can.