The Autumn Enigma

Boy, did I have high hopes for this album. In recent years I’ve learned to trust people who praise unknown bands, and having not heard a single negative word about Sweden’s Pandemonium, was really eager to check them out. Apparently, even those of us into the more obscure side of metal can have differing opinions as to what exactly is good music. While I can understand why many would like this, ‘The Autumn Enigma’ honestly has no effect on me whatsoever. This is a perfect example of the type of metal you can listen to without much effort – the problems arise if you wish to concentrate on it. There’s nothing to keep the listener focused, no surprises, nothing of interest.

To clarify, I’m not saying the music is bad, not at all. Pandemonium can write songs that have all the elements of good extreme metal and flow on beautifully, but that is precisely the problem. Every track (excluding album-closing keyboard instrumental ‘Postludium’, easily the best effort here) feels like an endless succession of riffs and melodies tumbling on each other without relaxing for a single moment. Not to mention that the vocalists – more than one of them – don’t seem to shut up at all. The style of songwriting is quite hectic, to put it bluntly. The listener barely has a chance to notice a pattern of notes before it is replaced by another; one certainly has no chance to enjoy any of it. The band simply can’t leave well enough alone but are compelled to cram every idea they can think of into each and every song. What this results in is that although the music “sounds good”, it’s in one ear and out the other before you know it – none of it is memorable in any way. A little patience wouldn’t be such a bad thing, would it? Some of this would be forgivable if only their ideas were original, but as things stand, I cannot think of a single riff I even want to remember. I don’t hear anything that hasn’t been done a thousand times.

As to what the album actually sounds like, imagine what would happen if Dimmu Borgir suddenly felt the need to become the next Opeth (or the other way around, for that matter). The end result could well be very close to Pandemonium. Now, if you happen to find that scenario interesting, good for you – chances are you’ll enjoy this. Granted, far worse things could happen, but as far as I’m concerned, there is far better music out there too. The way I see it, the band are doing their best to write sophisticated extreme metal (for lack of a better term), adding classical influences, symphonic elements and the “progressive” aspect of clean vocals and guitars to a basis that could be described as technical power metal with harsh vocals. Really not much more than a rather flamboyant take on melodeath, come to think of it. Any real sophistication will, however, be hard to find; everything just feels overdone. ‘The Autumn Enigma’ is an ambitious album but it ends up being pompous instead of convincing, if a description like that makes any sense.

On the plus side, the band members certainly know what they are doing with their instruments. In terms of musicianship and arrangements, the album is very close to flawless. In particular the low growls of main vocalist Kalle Wallin are excellent, bringing to mind an Åkerfeldt, for example. Same goes for production: when I say the sound is quite polished but not annoyingly much so, you will know exactly what I mean. But, honestly, all this only manages to make me sad. Such an amount of good things and genuine potential wasted on music as uninteresting as this. If even a fraction of their talent as musicians could be transformed into songwriting skill, Pandemonium would be a magnificent band.

All this can be brought down to a simple criterion: if you value form over content in the music you listen to, then ‘The Autumn Enigma’ may well be your dream come true (provided of course that the style fits your taste). In that case, think of this as an album worthy of a 90-something rating and go find it somewhere. If, on the other hand, you are like me and expect something more from music, go find something else instead. Like said earlier, this is not a bad album – in all fairness, when in need of “enjoyable” background noise, this works as well as anything – but I certainly wouldn’t call it good either.