Review by Saxy S for Ænigmatum - Deconsecrate (2021)

A couple of weeks ago, I briefly spoke about the new Ophidian I album and described it as a fairly decent blending of melodic and technical death metal, even if for me personally, the technical portion exhibited far too much of the foreground. Ænigmatum's album now asks what would this sound like it the focus was reversed?

I find Deconsecrate to be engaging in its technicality, but not holding onto the wankery prominent in technical death for very long phrases. "Disenthralled" and "Fracturing Proclivity" have very good balancing acts and the group does a solid job of making these tracks feel connected. Themes are sparse, but are developed throughout the track runtimes. Furthermore, themes are not kept divided based on which side of the melo-tech see-saw you're on; in fact, themes are regularly transformed between the two sections, and not making the opposing sections feel like glorified interludes.

The mixing is very good. The vocals reminded me heavily of Dying Fetus' John Gallagher. The guitars are heavy and melodic, and provide some much needed counterpoint to the fruitful and progressive bass that has plenty of room to breathe for melodies as well as some solo breaks. Percussion is top notch; there is a lot of double bass on this album, so it becomes very important that it won't become overbearing. Beyond that, the technical wizardry of Pierce Williams is wonderful as they make huge blast beats and extended drum fills.

Unfortunately for this album, it has two major flaws. The first is because of the loss of a true rhythm guitar, sections of this record fall flat. In all honesty, it feels more like a "you win some, you lose some" scenario; depends on the track. The other big issue is that in comparison to other prominent progressive death metal bands (Rivers of Nihil, Rannoch, An Abstract Illusion), there isn't very much that makes this record stand out by comparison. Whether that be the use of soaring melodic passages, or an uncommon musical instrument, this feels a little too predictable. I do like the tones on display here, but what really makes this record a cut above the progressive death metal albums from Alkaloid or The Faceless?

For me, I can see where Ænigmatum are coming from and I did enjoy Deconsecrate. While the melodic and technical sides of death metal are meshed well together, the record is mostly propped up by some excellent songwriting and production. However, without a truly distinguishing feature, I fear that Ænigmatum may get left behind in the annals of progressive death metal.