Enforcer
From Beyond
Nuclear Blast
2015
Enforcer is a young and forceful, band from Sweden that I have pretty much been able to view coming a long way, from 0 to almost heroes, by staying focused on their goal, true to their style, without straying or selling out and by touring relentlessly.
Album number four, then for the Swedish pretenders and things are pretty much as you would expect them to be, only,a little better, as there seems to be a bit more of flame and slightly more complex ideas and a bit more melody, more variation in tempos, better soloing and an overall better, more mature production that makes the band sound better without taking away the rawness which makes them appealing. They have kept the fire burning and upped their game a bit at the same time.
Opener “Destroyer” is a monster track that will bulldoze you... it sounds as cool as a young “Kill em all era Metallica” only a bit more melodic/heavy metal oriented. Catchy as hell, itself.
Follow up, “Undying Evil” goes for a little less speed, has solid riffs and drops another cool ass melodic but furious chorus, which rocks hard!
The title track “From Beyond”, adds even more melody and is characterized, by its simple yet sweeping epic chorus.
“One With Fire” revs up, the “engines” as hits back with another, anthemic sing-along song... that should easily be a live favorite.
“Below the Slumber” has this almost ballad like intro which is then followed by quite an outburst and then sort of goes back and forth, on a conundrum, between aggression and melody. With Olof’s vocals reminding a bit of a more vitriolic Blackie Lawless, he seems to have come a long way, from a young kid that was just yelling on top of his lungs, managing to sound quite emotive and as Enforcer slow down, (a bit) they actually manage to offer another memorable song…
“Hungry They Will Come” probably refers to bands getting offstage and pillaging the catering! Lol! It’s a very melodic instrumental, that has a ton of cool riffs and leads, which are hard to tell apart, in terms of choosing the best one, because if you pick out one, the next one hits you, being twice as neat. Great piece that reminded me of those early maiden instrumentals... that really kicked ass.
“The Banshee” enters quite abruptly – so I’m even curious if the version on the review material is final, or there’s some issue with the file, or that’s the way it was intended to be. It’s a fast and quite furious song, with “banshee” high vocals… it’s got a fantastic riff that repeats quite a bit and nice verses that evolve into a quite nice and melodic enough chorus.
“Farewell” with its long winded and ultra-melodic intro, was preparing me for another instrumental, but vocals do arrive at 1:30 delivering some pretty awesome verses over a cool bunch of riffs, but the chorus, I’m sure, could have been a little better than just a simple “Farewell”… cool solo too.
“Hell Will Follow” pushes the pedal to the metal, in a metallic(a)ttack that gave me a sweet reminiscence of when I first heard “Metal Millitia” by you know who… it’s not a copy, but it’s just as awesome!
And last but not least, Enforcer plays the card of cliché metal titles by naming the final track “Mask of Red Death”. Edgar Alan Poe would be so proud! And them guys should be quite as they manage to create a quite an epic song where light and shadow mix so well, creating a great atmosphere and enhancing the result considerably.
Enforcer’s fourth album is by far their best, as they have taken their primal metal and without watering it down they have refined it to the point that their steel is not only sharp but it’s also flashing… And the cool thing is that the band had their own brand of speed metal, their own identity that they worked on to refine, a fact that sets them apart from all these copycat bands that spew up, ripping off parts of their favorite songs when they come up and worked hard to make themselves the best they could be. Persistence pays great dividends and I guess the best is yet to come. If you like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Omen, Wasp or any of those big 80s bands, Enforcer 2015 are their illegitimate children and possible heirs to the throne. Truly Awesome.
Album number four, then for the Swedish pretenders and things are pretty much as you would expect them to be, only,a little better, as there seems to be a bit more of flame and slightly more complex ideas and a bit more melody, more variation in tempos, better soloing and an overall better, more mature production that makes the band sound better without taking away the rawness which makes them appealing. They have kept the fire burning and upped their game a bit at the same time.
Opener “Destroyer” is a monster track that will bulldoze you... it sounds as cool as a young “Kill em all era Metallica” only a bit more melodic/heavy metal oriented. Catchy as hell, itself.
Follow up, “Undying Evil” goes for a little less speed, has solid riffs and drops another cool ass melodic but furious chorus, which rocks hard!
The title track “From Beyond”, adds even more melody and is characterized, by its simple yet sweeping epic chorus.
“One With Fire” revs up, the “engines” as hits back with another, anthemic sing-along song... that should easily be a live favorite.
“Below the Slumber” has this almost ballad like intro which is then followed by quite an outburst and then sort of goes back and forth, on a conundrum, between aggression and melody. With Olof’s vocals reminding a bit of a more vitriolic Blackie Lawless, he seems to have come a long way, from a young kid that was just yelling on top of his lungs, managing to sound quite emotive and as Enforcer slow down, (a bit) they actually manage to offer another memorable song…
“Hungry They Will Come” probably refers to bands getting offstage and pillaging the catering! Lol! It’s a very melodic instrumental, that has a ton of cool riffs and leads, which are hard to tell apart, in terms of choosing the best one, because if you pick out one, the next one hits you, being twice as neat. Great piece that reminded me of those early maiden instrumentals... that really kicked ass.
“The Banshee” enters quite abruptly – so I’m even curious if the version on the review material is final, or there’s some issue with the file, or that’s the way it was intended to be. It’s a fast and quite furious song, with “banshee” high vocals… it’s got a fantastic riff that repeats quite a bit and nice verses that evolve into a quite nice and melodic enough chorus.
“Farewell” with its long winded and ultra-melodic intro, was preparing me for another instrumental, but vocals do arrive at 1:30 delivering some pretty awesome verses over a cool bunch of riffs, but the chorus, I’m sure, could have been a little better than just a simple “Farewell”… cool solo too.
“Hell Will Follow” pushes the pedal to the metal, in a metallic(a)ttack that gave me a sweet reminiscence of when I first heard “Metal Millitia” by you know who… it’s not a copy, but it’s just as awesome!
And last but not least, Enforcer plays the card of cliché metal titles by naming the final track “Mask of Red Death”. Edgar Alan Poe would be so proud! And them guys should be quite as they manage to create a quite an epic song where light and shadow mix so well, creating a great atmosphere and enhancing the result considerably.
Enforcer’s fourth album is by far their best, as they have taken their primal metal and without watering it down they have refined it to the point that their steel is not only sharp but it’s also flashing… And the cool thing is that the band had their own brand of speed metal, their own identity that they worked on to refine, a fact that sets them apart from all these copycat bands that spew up, ripping off parts of their favorite songs when they come up and worked hard to make themselves the best they could be. Persistence pays great dividends and I guess the best is yet to come. If you like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Omen, Wasp or any of those big 80s bands, Enforcer 2015 are their illegitimate children and possible heirs to the throne. Truly Awesome.