When some friends of mine ask me about the past, and why it is so passionate, my answer is always the same: when you are close to the beginning of a Metal genre or when it is coming back after sometimes drowned in the deepest cellars, you can create. Yes, it's far easier to create something new and different when you are close to its beginning or when it's coming back. Explaining my thesis with an example: ENTOMBED wasn't the creator of Death Metal. But the band was so close to the style's beginning and doing things in its own way that "Left Hand Path" is a bible for the genre. Then we can have in mind that nothing done in these days can be as good as in the 90s, and these are my words about the Turkish band ENGULFED. Their first album, called "Engulfed in Obscurity", is a boring experience.

I'm sorry to say, but it's another case of love for the past in a way that they can't do something different from what is already done. All the songs are brutal, but in the way we heard many times before. It reminds a lot the old days from the 90s, taking references on bands from Swedish Death Metal School like DISMEMBER and UNLEASHED. But it's like a clone copy of their works, fusing the eroded clichés and it becomes true boring as you hear the album.

Another heavy criticism of mine is about the sound quality: is raw and dirty far beyond the point. We barely can understand the vocals during the grunted parts (only on the screams it's possible to understand something), and the drums are hidden under the massive rawness of the sound. There's no sense in doing things in this way!

They have some good moments on the album, heard on slow moments of "Conqueror from Beyond the Outer Gates" and "Conqueror from Beyond the Outer Gates", the good riffs on "Invocation of Death and Misery", the fast brutality shown on "Inseminated with Demon Seed", and the good drumming on "Mayhemic Flames of Doom" (I had a hard time to understand the drums on this song). But these features aren't enough to save the album. Guys, you have talent, so use it! Forget what was already done and write your own rules. It's not a matter of "being real" or something like that, but to be honest to you and to all of us...