Apparently French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and the Romand language or français de Suisse is spoken largely in the Arc Lémanique region in the Western part of the country. This fact and the disc in front of me reminded me of the one man outfit Borgne who had so impressed with 2012 album ‘Royaume des ombres.’ It probably wasn’t really surprising to discover that both Borgne and Enoid are actually the work of the same person one Sergio Moplat who is best known under the nom de guerre of Bornyhake. He certainly is a prolific chap who has notched up plenty of releases in the aforementioned acts, as well as past and present, some 15 others. He even managed to play drums in Greek outfit Kawir at one point. As far as Enoid are concerned he has delivered six albums in the last ten years but the project has been active for 20 under various guises. This is my first encounter with them and again it is very much a one man show as everything you hear is done by him.
With an album title that translates to ‘Exiled To The Confines Of Torment’ and tracks similarly like ‘These Scars In My Soul’ and ‘Ode To Hatred’ it’s pretty obvious this is going to be devout and misanthropic black craft. Once ‘Je t’arracherai les cieux’ ‘I Will Tear You Heaven’ hones in the abuse comes thick and fast. Drums hammer away, thorny vocals spike and snarl and guitar riffs flail like whiplash. This goes like the absolute clappers and is a bit of a change from the more atmospheric and graven Borgne that I have heard. There’s a good melodic grasp about its pulverising thrust though and if I had not looked things up and known better I would have assumed this was the work of a full band rather than just one individual. There are some slower moods stirred up here too and they are quite creepy as they lurch along with some necrotic sounding vocal parts. The track ends really strangely too with some pizzicato plucking noises before the next number hammers in on its back and tears off again.
Without going further into the lyrical narrative it is still pretty easy to guess where Bornyhake is coming from with his hellish vocal delivery and spiteful musical approach. There’s some excellent driving fury here and some of the repetitive musical motifs as with the central theme of ‘Ces cicatrices dans mon âme’ are catchy and compulsive. Tracks are on the whole cut down to an average 5 minute length and are not left to sprawl but get their message across in a perfunctory fashion before moving on. It’s not all hyperblast speed either and we move to brooding crepuscular and crypt like stalking tones on ‘Mangez ma chair, prenez ma douleu’ where as the title suggests flesh is consumed in an unholy mass. Don’t get too comfortable though as the next number is a complete contrast and literally tears your head off whilst also adding some downright sinister melody lines once it has done so.
There’s plenty of depth and passion about this album and at full thrust it goes down a damn destructive path. The fact that other paces are occasionally brought to the forefront allow things to breathe and not stagnate making this a pretty solid album that captivates throughout. Having been bitten I’m glad that this is just the start for me as there are plenty more works of suicide and genocide still to explore.
(8/10 Pete Woods)
https://www.facebook.com/enoidblackmetal
https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat146-enoid-exil-aux-confins-des-tourments-2016
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