ÆNIGMA

On Aenigma In Vain play a style of blackened death metal where the primary black metal inspiration is progressive-era Enslaved. This means lots of clean vocals and atmospherics by the ton, with just enough death metal to stop the band from descending into Enslaved clone territory. Actually, I'd say In Vain have a way to go before they are on Enslaved's level when it comes to progressive extreme metal - in particular, their song structures feel cluttered and messy, almost as though they just threw in a bunch of stuff for no reason other than they heard Enslaved doing it - but they're on the way.

5/10

Overly Familiar, But Executed With Well-Intentioned Energy.

It might sound derogative, but it's the way things are: right now In Vain are just another Death Metal band hailing from Norway with a polished-sounding production and constantly clean/growl vocal pattern. It's a formula that has been used countless times in the last fifteen years or so in metal music, and a lot of times bands like Opeth and Enslaved find great success indulging in this style. But in more recent years there have been a great deal of downright copycats; sadly, In Vain sounds just like one of them.

At their third album, "Aenigma", it seems they don't make an effort to try different approaches. The one thing they do that is admirable is that they're able to use both Death Metal growls and Black Metal shrieks and make them cohabit in the same track very well. This is in fact a talented band, with great musicians and with evidently a lot of points of reference, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But I'm yet to hear from them something that sounds just a little bit different from the prototype of Progressive Metal band who likes to turn it up a notch vocal performance-wise.

But even if the album somehow did manage to have its own distinct sound, the songwriting is half-forgettable, even though In Vain manages to structure a few songs quite well and to put some nice, quieter instrumental bridges within a stracks. I could start drawing comparisons here, but they'd be useless. In terms of dissecting a song's core, and spreading some diversity here and there, the band can do that well, and that's one thing that matters. Tracks such as "Times Of Yore" and the closing "Floating Of the Murmuring Tide" are perfect examples, and also happen to be very well executed. Another highlight would be the opening track "Against The Grain" easily the most memorable and melodic track here. But the rest of the album, sadly, is bland and pretty much flavorless.

Saying that In Vain is not a good band is a ridiculous statement, because there is a lot of potential in their music. They're talented musicians and I'm sure they're capable of making more original and less borrowed-sounding music eventually. But for now, they can't help but being stuck in the vast, painfully homogeneous sea of Scandinavian bands that haven't gained much success.