Genre: Symphonic Metal
Country: Greece
Label: FYB Records
Year: 2014
The greek metal scene the last few years has made many leaps of progress. Bands with a lot of perspective and quality keep spawning all the time in the “metal” landscape, and it is obvious that we are heading towards –if not already there- the establishment of a unique scene. Enemy of Reality are hoping to become another building block of this scene. The band’s members are not new in the business, as we have Iliana Tsakiraki ((Meden Agan) at the vocals, Steelianos (Keado Mores, Steelborn) at the guitar, Philip Stone (Meden Agan) at the drums, bassist Thanos (Cthonian Alchemy) and keyboardist Marianthe. First good impression comes from the cover and the artwork, which both are quite well made. The number of guest musicians that take part in the album is quite impressive as well. In particular, Christos Antoniou (Septic Flesh, Chaostar), composed the opening intro “Medusa”, Matt Le Pond (Symphony X) takes part in “My Own Master”, Ailyn Jimenez (Sirenia) sings together with Iliana in “Needle Bites”, a song that is the album’s first video clip, Androniki Skoula (Chaostar) is the half-part of the –awesome- vocal duet in “The Bargaining”, while, finally, Maxi Nil (Jaded Heart, ex Visions of Atlantis) lends her voice in “Step Into The Light”. Let’s get to the album, so, Enemy of Reality is committed to playing a music style that is highly challenging in terms of composing, producing and performing. The band, however pulls it off and delivers an album of remarkable quality. The writing, first of all, besides its apparent influences from the acknowledged bands of the genre, has a number of progressive elements together with intense theatrical ones, with the last emerging mainly from the lyrical concept regarding the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice which unfolds in four songs (Her Descending Ghost, The Bargaining, Grief Divine, Torn Apart). The band’s sound is solid, managing to keep in balance the intense –at times- orchestration and putting forward, when necessary, certain instruments or vocals. As regards the band’s performance, let’s start with Iliana, who’s repertoire contains –incredible- soprano vocals, and is able to sing very high notes. She does not sing excessively, going over the top, but manages to harness her voice and unleashes calculated explosions when necessary. She is, shortly, one of the best voices in the scene nowadays. The guitar work is overall concrete, also without being excessive, while some progressive influences are evident. The fantastic guitar solos is something worth of mention as well. The keyboards are harmonically bound with the guitar, and this comes as no surprise since the two people behind them are the co-composers of almost all the songs of the album. The rhythm section is top notch as well, with these guys being very good musicians. “Rejected Gods” failed to bore me, even after repeated listens, and even though I am not a die-hard fan of the genre. So, I guess this release is a very good recommendation for the fans of symphonic metal. What we have here for sure is a band that we will hear a lot from in the future.
4,5/6