Coming all the way from Chile is the debut, self-titled release from symphonic metalcore band ENUMBRIA. They are a funny mixture of ALL THAT REMAINS and DIMMU BORGIR and I don't mean funny as in humorous. I mean funny as in peculiar or how something's funny if there isn't something just quite right about it.

But the music of ENUMBRIA isn't all that bizarre. It's very heavily synth-laden and from the way it sounds, had minimalistic production put into it. Everything still sounds very crisp and clean though. But regardless of the audible cleanliness of this record, it still sounds like it all exists inside of a very tiny, dark room. For something that is trying to be melodramatic and gothic, this is definitely a hindrance.

That aside, that isn't even what I think completely ruins what could've been a good album for ENUMBRIA. The vocalist really has no direction or range to himself outside of the tough-guy, fry screaming. The vocals get really old only after a few minutes and really weigh the entire album down. The rest of the time left in the songs seem to drag on and on due to the uninteresting and unimpressive level of vocals. The singing is the biggest anchor for ENUMBRIA that keeps them from breaching past the threshold of mediocrity.

I will say that although the synthesizers are layered on very thick, they hardly, if ever, wear out their welcome. Listen to into of "En el Poder" and you can witness how the whole band has this potential to stretch their musical boundaries. The song, unfortunately, devolves after the first minute or so. The guitar chugging and melodramatic vocals were to blame for this one.

I can't really say that the atmosphere, vision, theme or whatever you want to call it about ENUMBRIA is very clearly defined at all. It seems like a Post-Thrash Metal, Metalcore band wanted to sound more gothic or symphonic and these two ideas did not mesh all that way together on this self-titled release. I just think that if the band really wanted to go into a darker, more melodic atmosphere than they need to drop the fry screaming and the palm-muted breakdown riffs.