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Ensepulchred > The Night Our Rituals Blackened the Stars > Reviews
Ensepulchred - The Night Our Rituals Blackened the Stars

Couldn't they have developed at least a LITTLE? - 63%

Noktorn, March 9th, 2009

This is a pretty basic extension of the band's first LP; it's about the same in quality and all the things that bothered me about 'Suicide In Winter's Moonlight' are still here, albeit in a mildly altered form. On this release Ensepulchred does sound more like a serious musical project rather than something composed on a lark, but it's just a bizarre and question-raising as the first album, just with longer songs and a slightly different production job. Really there's zero advancement between this and the last album, so whichever you want to pick up really makes no difference.

If anything, the biggest change is that the guitars here sound marginally more real than the ones on the last album. They could still very well be synthesized, but the possibility of them just having gone through a ridiculous amount of processing is slightly more realistic. They're more immediate and much closer to the foreground, actually having a substantial melodic voice instead of letting the synths trample all over them. The sense of melody is still the same though: gothic and electronic in nature with maybe a very minor slant towards symphonic black metal on this release. The minimalist programmed drums and grumbling goblin vocals are still perfectly intact for those six people which were fearful they'd be gone.

While the music isn't of worse quality than the first album, the increased average song length makes this a more difficult listen than the first. 'Suicide In Winter's Moonlight' was able to maintain my attention because the songs were short and... well, I guess 'punchy' isn't the right word, but brief enough to not let the relatively simple songs get stale. The music is a bit more complex on 'The Night Our Rituals Blackened The Stars', but not really enough to justify the length of the tracks, and the music does get repetitive and droning near the end of each track (much like the unnecessary bursts of electronic noise between songs). While the melodies are a tad more involving and interesting on this LP, even the most rich ones tend to get old.

I don't really have a problem with Ensepulchred's music on principle; it's just that their aesthetic is so bizarre and noncommittal that the music never hits its stride in any of the places it's trying to. I like 'Suicide In Winter's Moonlight' minutely more than this because at least there the band seemed to be aware that they were a novelty group without a lot of lasting power, but here they're trying to be more serious but are unwilling to reevaluate the base elements of their sound. Either go more electronic or go black metal, but this crawling, synth-driven style really needs to be one or the other to have a major effect.

If you liked the previous album for whatever reason, you'll probably like this one too, so there's no need to question the purchase. If you didn't (and you probably didn't), this won't change your mind even remotely. It's an okay followup to the previous album, but Ensepulchred really needs to start expanding their musical vocabulary before I can heartily recommend them. It's an interesting diversion but that rarely makes for great music.

Interesting... - 75%

Sharkbait, May 5th, 2008

I first heard this album a couple months ago. I didn't expect much. Just the general black metal band. It is unusual for me to like a band right from the start. I usually have to listen to, at least, a whole album. From the opening track all the way to the ending, every song follows a very similar formula. The music its self is a very atmospheric style of black metal. I haven't heard anything quite like this. The keyboard is louder than the guitar most of the time. It's a little like Fear of Eternity, but slow and more distorted.

Anyways, each song flows into each other perfectly. I can't hear the guitar that well, because its volume in the mix is very low. As for the keyboards, they are great...but sound too similar in every song. They should change the sound a bit. The synth they use can get very boring and irritating after a while. They are slow, but memorable at least. The vocals are interesting. They aren't the typical high pitched screech. They are low for black metal. I think the album would get a much higher rating if there was real drums in the mix. The drum machine they use isn't the best, but isn't the worst I've heard.

Pros: Excellent vocals and keys. Very atmospheric.
Cons: Repetitive and hard to sit through after the first 5 songs.

Tracks that stick out in my mind as the best are Graves Upturned, Embrace Your Decaying Children And Weep, In A Dark Place With No Escape and Unforgivable.
As I said above, this album suffers from their drum machine. But if the machines don't bother you, you will enjoy this album much more than I.

Album is a dull electronic BM ritual routine - 30%

NausikaDalazBlindaz, April 10th, 2008

On paper, this trio looks good: Ensepulchred play lo-fi creepy ambient black metal on this album entirely on cheap synthesisers and programmed drum machines with guitars only just audible in the background. Vocals are distorted with electronics and the keyboard tones and effects supposedly hark back to Italian horror B-movies made in the 1960's - '70's. At first the band does sound good but their appeal wears off all too quickly and "The Night Our Rituals Blackened The Stars" album sinks into a dull 40-minute routine. Incidentally this album may be a follow-up to "Suicide in Winter's Moonlight" which follows the same stylistic approach and has a similar issue with maintaining listener interest.

The problem as I see it is that the synths operate in a very narrow range of tones and are entirely clean so every song seems to have much the same sounds and textures no matter how varied the melodies and riffs may be (and there is not much variety in there either). The drumming rhythms stay at much the same pace (medium-fast) so we can't rely on these to give the songs the aggression and oomph they need. The vocals hardly change either: on most songs the gritty voices go non-stop as if trying to talk over the music and make no attempt to keep in time with the players or to rise and fall with the volume. The songs as a result sound much the same and there's no attempt on the musicians' part to engage the listener in any way emotionally or lyrically so boredom sets in quickly. If there is a direction, it's hard to find and the music seems very static as though in spite of all the activity going on, we hardly move anywhere.

I'd like to see these guys do well if only because the name Ensepulchred sounds like a good band name so if I knew the right magic spell to recite, this is what I'd conjure up for the band: give them a bigger repertory of keyboard sounds to include a lot of rough twitchy glitch electronics and some subterranean drone and grit; a live drummer with a full drum kit who can play a lot of complex rhythms at different speeds and who can give the band a fuller sound which they can use when they want; and get the guys to rethink their musical concept and not have to stick to the idea of their music as an open-ended soundtrack to a never-ending cheap and bizarre horror music. More instrumental music and less singing might help because the singing is not very interesting. I'd also have more ambient effects and spoken word samples to liven up the music and maybe introduce a humorous element (ironic, sarcastic, satirical).

The only memorable track here is "One Final Nightfall, and then Silence Eternal" for the rumbling coda which lets you know your ordeal of listening to this album is finally at an end and then it's silence ecstatic.