Register Forgot login?

© 2002-2024
Encyclopaedia Metallum

Privacy Policy

Enemy of the Sun > Caedium > Reviews
Enemy of the Sun - Caedium

The Royal Seal Of Gayness. (Sped Class #5) - 11%

hells_unicorn, January 7th, 2012

Not to be swayed by an inferior debut effort, purveyors of the modern method of confounding the definition of metal Enemy Of The Sun kicked off a sophomore album that sought to dethrone its predecessor in confusing the hell out of anyone unfortunately enough to hear it. If the stylistic label progressive thrash/death/black metal isn’t perplexing enough for you, do not be alarmed, this band has plenty of convoluted, all over the place songs to satisfy your desire to comprehend the irrational possibility of rectangular circles and two-dimensional cubes. Or to put it in musical terms, let us say that a literal Frankenstein monster with a 90s Pantera head, mid-2000s Annihilator torso, Trivium arms, modern In Flames legs, and assorted extreme metal band toes is your poison; then this is treasure to rival all of King Solomon’s gold.

“Caedium” joins “Shadows” and a number of other pseudo-progressive abortions in both melodic and extreme metal circles to attempt to repackage elements of groove and nu-metal with truer versions of the art form, and producing an absolute mess in the process. While the talent of the machine gun-like, double bass drum madman Daniel Zeman and technically savvy guitarist Waldemar Sorychta is not really in question, nearly everything else put forth by them and the rest of this outfit is. Most of this album comes off as a contorted stew of technical showboating with little attentiveness to songwriting, ergo the opposite of what generally makes thrash, death, and black metal appealing, and it wanders well beyond the self-imposed limitations of Dream Theater that, while often pretty eclectic, is still digestible and enjoyable. A good analogy would be something along the lines of reciting a set of complex number groups at Guinness record speed. It might be an accomplishment, but it doesn’t pass for something worthy of recording and spending quality time alone in your car or house with.

The most off-putting part of this music is a bit difficult to nail down, and this album actually does manage to be a bit more metal oriented than its predecessor. One thing that sticks out as obvious is the annoying vocal characters put forth Jules Navari, the man of a thousand voices, all of them gimpy metalcore-like versions of the real thing. His bastardized combination of pop/punk clean singing and limp-wristed death barks over a set of hyper-redundant Jeff Waters riffs on “Chasing The Dragon” is one of the worst offenses, but also the tip of a very sizable and consistent ice berg. The mechanical nature of the music also occasional lends itself to industrial/techno interludes such as “Castaways Of The N.W.O.” and “Aimless”, the latter of which struggles to be a metal song rather than a bizarre pop tune. The only thing that really works on here to any degree is when the band goes for a direct emulation of Annihilator, which only occurs to a significant extent on “Sky Shooting Stars”. It’s not the most terrible thing I’ve ever heard, but it was done better 10 years ago on “Carnival Diablos”, and better still 21 years ago on “Alice In Hell”.

My ears are still ringing from this most unpleasant experience of an album, but I’m sure there are plenty of late teen tough guys trying to impersonate the 90s incarnation of Phil Anselmo who will try to argue the case that music like this showcases their intelligent side. While I proudly disassociate myself from this crowd, I can acknowledge that there is an audience for this rot. However, most looking for something that even attempts to resemble even modern thrash, let alone the 6 or 7 other sub-genres trying to be incorporated here, are advised to pretend that the sun has no enemies, or at least none bragging about it to the point of naming a band after the idea. An infamous reviewer of metal once said with regards to Sepultura’s abortion “Roots” (which paved the way for this) that “You can take a shit on the ceiling and call it original, but it’s still just shit”. I’d argue that “Caedium” ups the ante and makes a stalactite filled cave with similar results.

The Genre GPS Blows A Fuse. Again. - 35%

Crank_It_Up_To_666, September 26th, 2010

Now then, boys. Enemy of the Sun, you call yourselves? A fine name there, to be sure - snappy, oblique and a bit redundant-sounding if used outside of the gothic genre. Well, for all that the said unusual name does fill me with a certain gnawing apprehension for the listening session ahead, methinks it is time to put your newest record 'Caedium' down upon the death deck and give it a whirl...

...Well lads, the session is done. The results are in, the mail's through the letterbox, your ship's come in. However you want to put it, this does not bode well for you, my friends.

The first and most unequivocally important question that we must address is perhaps the simplest one; where in Satan's unholy name are you trying to go with this music? To be sure, I can understand the pride that fueled The End Records' statement that your music cannot be "put into a nice little box" - how happy they must have been to have put out that statement when you, a band describing themselves as "Progressive thrash with death/black metal influences", turned in a record that sounds like American Head Charge and a mediocre Mudvayne song copulating. Do please tell, was there a conscious effort on your part to defy your own already bafflingly over-complex label, or do you just find yourselves becoming fond of the word 'skronk' of late? Did the death metal albums and black metal albums and, hell, even the thrash metal albums you were going to use as influences get lost in the post and you had to make do with whatever meagre pickings you had to hand?

Second of all, I feel I cannot let this album pass without inquiring as to just what blueprint it is that you draw your songcraft from, because quite clearly it saw a lot of wear and tear over the course of writing 'Caedium.' I've tried my damndest, I truly have, but for the life of this humble scribe I cannot pick out what element it is that keeps 'Castaways in the N.W.O', 'Sky Shooting Stars', 'I Am One' and essentially every other song on the record from sounding more or less identical. Come to think of it, that element might not actually be there in the first place. Oh, and a word to the wise; making an album one might charitably term as "out-there" and including the song title "Aimless" is quite simply asking for trouble. Shame upon you for the rookie mistake.

However, the spirit of generosity is not utterly absent this talking head, and I do see at least that there are plenty of crunchy riffs and delightfully bouncing rhythms scattered about this album for a certain sort of fan to enjoy. Sadly, these are not the sort of fans that your utterly bizarre and almost totally inaccurate press releases and genre tags are going to wash with, so unless you've got the alchemical answer to Opeth tucked away in your sleeves for the follow-up, might one suggest that at least one of your number put some serious thought into just what the hell has been going on for these last two records.

If we may be serious a moment; 'Caedium' may quite possibly be the most misleading album of 2010 from the most confusing band ever to sign to a heavy metal label. It's a million miles from unlistenable, to be sure, but it's tedious and samey to a horrifying degree, and anyone intrigued by the promise of prog-death-black-thrash is going to have look elsewhere ASAP, because not even a note of that is to be found here.

[ Originally written for www.fueled-magazine.com ]