That's actually one of the most prevalent aspects about Witchcraft, the melody. I can't even point out specific examples because every single track manages to nail this flawlessly. In a sense I suppose you could call it 'typical', since the vast majority of the guitar work is comprised of tremolo patterns and the drums seem to blast along for a good amount of the running time, but the inherent melody in these riffs are just overwhelming. It can be difficult to tell which aspect of the overall sound is leading the other at times, which is brilliant because it shouldn't really be one or the other anyway, and Obtained Enslavement not only realized that, but managed to execute it very well.Take the metal portion of the record, for instance. At no point do the strings, keys, horns, or that goddamn awesome timpani feel tacked on as an afterthought, and at the same time, the same can be said about the traditional metal instrumentation. Obviously I'm a fan of symphonic metal in general anyway, I've been defending Rhapsody of Fire for years, but this is one of the very, very few albums to incorporate the classical influence so bloody masterfully. And even better, it's apparently an extremely well regarded album within the black metal scene.Īnd even better than that, all the heaps of praise that get piled on top of the album are 100% deserved.That's right, out of the fjordiest fjords of northern fjordland, we have Obtained Enslavement, and despite being much less of a black metal guy than certain other genres, I feel pretty confident in calling their second album, Witchcraft, one of the finest symphonic black metal albums in existence. I mean, he certainly provided me with black metal, no doubt, but I was expecting something along the lines of Gris or Agalloch, but instead what he gave me was more along the lines of Emperor. True story, he was the first guy to track down my personal Facebook page and send me fanmail that way, so even if he was a shitty writer (which he isn't), I'd love him anyway.Anywho, just like with the last one, I didn't quite get what I was expecting when I proposed the swap challenge.

Well today is round three, wherein I swap with yet another Canadian, this time the cascadian 'holy shit maaaaan this is so transcendental' genius in RapeTheDead. The Taste Swap hits bullseye for a changeSo a few months ago, I hit up some of my more talented fellow reviewers whose work I respected despite having very little taste in common with, and undertook a Taste Swap Challenge. First edition & repress (unknown release date) only differ in Maxtrix (see below).Recording information:Recorded and mixed in Grieghallen Studio, 1996.Co-produced by Obtained Enslavement.Identifiers:Barcode: 4 025 (first Pressing)Barcode: 4 025 (Repress)Matrix (first Pressing): DADC AUSTRIA IFPI L553 A-0101 13 A0 IFPI 94F3Matrix (Repress): Sony DADC IFPI L555 A-0101 25 A00 IFPI 94K2. Licensed by Holocaust Records (Riccardo Figiaconi, Genova, Italy).

Enslavement and beauty album rar