I pretty much live and breathe Metal music, and usually average at least two festivals per month. Thanks to this, I see a deluge of bands each year, and must sadly admit that when you get to see so many bands, very few performances stick out. But one show that really stayed with me happened a few weeks back at my personal highlight of the Metal calendar, Dark Troll Festival (it may be tiny, but as the saying goes, dynamite comes in small packages). Closing off the festival was an Italian Atmospheric Black Metal band called ENISUM, and though I'm loathe to say it, I'd never heard of them before. But from the first few notes it was clear that their show would be nothing short of utterly enthralling. And so it was. Effortlessly holding the audience captive in a thrall as haunting melodies came cascading from the stage, I knew then that this would be a band I'd be coming back to again and again. And to my joy, I found out that the band have just released their fifth full-length album, "Seasons of Desolation", so I just had to check it out.

Featuring a total of ten songs that span an hour, it only took a few listens for this to become my standard go-to album after a long day. Opener "Autumn of Melancholy" comes gliding in on velveteen wings, slowly building up the atmosphere before breaking into a captivating melody that sweeps away everything in its path. This sets the general tone of the album, with faster sections interspersed with slower and more poignant parts. Some sections remind me of the older WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, whilst other places are a new beast entirely. This album seems to encapsulate everything, from the spell-binding simplistic tranquility of "... of Desolation" to the pounding and ferocious onslaught that is "Snow Storm". At the pinnacle of the album is my personal favourite song: "Balance of Insanity". Marked by searing guitar melodies, guttural growls, and swirling guitar riffs, this song is pretty much pure perfection. Occasional female vocals add a mournful and keening air to the music, beautifully complementing the racing tempo of "Nameless Sadness" for example. This stands in stark contrast to the discordant Doomy atmosphere of the aptly titled "Obscure Depths". "Dead Star" on the other hand felt like one of the weaker songs on the album, a feeling which was further exacerbated by its length, which gave the song an overly drawn-out feeling. Nevertheless, it does set the stage for the closer "Lake of Tears", in which a morass-like tempo sucks you in before launching back into the raw and aggressive older Black Metal style.

What I liked is that ENISUM wasn't afraid to experiment on this album, even if some of the less conventional parts might not have worked out too spectacularly at times. The riffing can be a bit too similar from one song to the next, and there is perhaps not much variation in the overall song-structure. However, these few gripes aside, "Seasons of Desolation" is nonetheless a gripping and haunting album, well worth the listen if you're into more Atmospheric strain of Black Metal. And if you get the chance to see ENISUM live, take the opportunity. They are absolutely spell-binding, and are definitely not to be missed!