The Enemy Within

It seems to me that Occult really got a hell of a lot better when they changed their name; unlike most bands rooted in the (kinda) early '90s scene, the heyday for these guys occurred much further down the road. "The Enemy Within" shows why; it's a '96 album with just as little personality as you'd expect from that. Black/thrash somewhat in the vein of Witchery (after a fashion,) Occult's overbearing need to be serious and grim ends up torpedoing this album, particularly when they're about as threatening as a basket full of puppies. There's harsh vocals, kinda-blasts, and tremolo riffs, but overall this sounds so precious and nonthreatening it's the musical equivalent to children's safety scissors with the rounded tips.

The primary issue of this album is that it's black/thrash, but not of the hard-bitten early Sodom variety; it really sounds like pretty generic second wave black metal mixed with bay area stuff like Anthrax; there's way too much conventional heavy metal and bouncy punk rhythms in this stuff for my taste. More importantly, it makes the music seem totally incongruous and poorly structured. Take a look at "Selfbetrayed"; who had the genius idea to put a cock-rock dual lead next to a Mayhem-style riff over blast passage? It's things like these which consistently rob the album of any power and make it sound ridiculous. On top of this, the music itself simply isn't well written even when divorced from the goofier elements; the thrash is stale and formulaic, and the black metal sounds like simplified and softened up versions of "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas." It just doesn't really work on any level at all, and I'm surprised the band recovered after making music like this.

If you really feel the need to listen to this band, check out their later albums or especially their material under Legion of the Damned. "The Enemy Within" is just a sort of comical, dated piece of mid-'90s schlock that's better off in the bargain bin where I found it myself.