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Senmuth - Энграмма CD (album) cover

Энграмма

Senmuth

Experimental/Post Metal


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4 stars Engram is Senmuth's 150th album which furthers down into the dubstep elements that the artist has been experimenting in recent past efforts. Overall it is a very good, solid mixture of said genre and the metal and ethic regular stuff.

"t quark" is the typical introductory track to set the mood into the album which while is not in itself representative of the whole set-list is very good to intrigue the listener, soft pianos ambient-like and background pad atmospheres

"«(You ?) Foundation of Megapolis»" In the other hand, starts way different from the intro track almost cutting the atmosphere created by its predecessor all in a good way. The song starts with some heavy down-tuned guitar cords that sound like death metal almost to math-metal, there is also some really good fast bass picking every now and then giving a song another layer of tension to the overall track. The introduction of the Dubstep elements first appears in this track although very slightly without becoming a main element in the whole song except for a couple of moments, there is also a heavy use of glitches in both the instruments and the vocals without sounding too off.

The vocals this time seem like and odd mixture of the early Senmuth Albums where it was more high pitched going more for the EDM/industrial style and the later more harsh, deep metal vocals feature prominently on albums like "Akhet Meri Ra" and Sebek", this two styles almost seem to clash to seem like two different kind of mentalities are singing the lyrics.

«Anti-scientific Model [Heresy in the Forefront of Discovery]»: The second track speeds down the tempo and changes the drum-machine to another interesting style while also letting go some of the tension of the last song, the guitar work here is simple yet effective enough to be remembered and enjoyed, being one of the main elements of the song while the electronic elements is present is mostly backing up with harp-like tingles and whatnot and coming to front briefly at the bridges. Good track overall.

"«Epoch» Эпоха «Like»" Returns the tempo a few notches up with the guitar, bass and sitar exchange becoming more edgy; throughout the song there can be heard a tingling bells percussion instruments of some sort, the vocal glitching here is very on beat and well done, the dubstep parts start to become more aggressive without over-lapping but instead merging nicely.

"Bitu Men, Dancing with a Tambourine Around the Limestone Block" Works as an interlude, driven by with different middle-eastern percussions and wind instruments in the echoed background. It really succeeds to communicate the theme of the title where a tribe might be dancing to the song in a mysterious ritual, the track is short enough to convey the idea and fade out and not feel over-drawn or monotonic in nature.

"«Internal Record [Engram]»": Brings back the guitar this time played in a more heavy metal style while accompanied by ethic female and male vocal samples before being picked up by Senmuth vocals adding the dubstep growling on top, funny enough there is an instrument here that sounds almost like a cowbell entering in some parts which add some nice groove to the mixture, while the female vocals are good they could perhaps be on more quantities to feel like a more complete song rather than just a quick use-and-dispose thing.

"«Your Life - Polygon»" Sees the electronic part and the glitchy-editing taking over the song above all, affecting even the main guitar, it almost feel like the remix of an existing rock song. The vocals and guitar melody make a very good atmosphere, the ethic element here is very much self-contained in the bridge section, Indian-style sitar played very effectively without breaking climate.

"Чайник Рассела ? Russell's Teapot" Starts off as an energetic and rolling unmistakably dubstep track full of growling basses and electronic beeps while still maintain the senmuth style, the only real string instrument is played very simply giving a nice layer to it in a very strange paranoid way.

"«The Final Song of Oceanides»" Is another very good song; mixture of heavy metal (almost thrash) guitar work and there is a very good element rightfully exploded here of spooky keys that almost sound like operatic female vocals and a convoluted string section for a short time that feels very cinematographic

"«Pitstop» (voice fade out 152 sec dubstep mantra)" Closes the album with the dusbstep synths above all the other instruments in a very curious and catchy loop; another well-done experimental element that I would like to praise is the vocal background loops oscillating, it was a very neat idea. This particular song feels more like and experiment on how he could post-edit all the elements he originally started with while he first recorded them.

Overall it is a very good and energetic album with enough good ideas and experimentation along the more regular and non-regular guitar work. Full of crazy post-editing, glitches and contemporary musical devices. Definitely worths to be listened.

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Posted Saturday, November 23, 2013 | Review Permalink

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