You spend years listening to a plethora of bands,artists, albums,EP's,single and your opinions of them tend to be very polarizing but once every so often a band/album comes along and resonates with you in a way you thought incomprehensible,that such band(album) is the absolutely god tier self titled debut album from Progressive/Tech Noir Metal Trio The Enigma Division, the band features the sublime talents of Conor McGouran (Ex Xerath),on Guitar/Keyboards,Ronan Burns on Bass/Keyboards and Ben Wanders(Ex Xerath, Shardborne & Slave Zero) Drums & Vocals.
Straight away you get the feeling that you're about to listen to a movie score or soundtrack with the Intro 1977 which builds like some post apocalyptic countdown to an event or a story,it's has the feeling of movies like Terminator or Blade Runner, instantly you're hit with a barage of groove laden riffs,synths combined with soaring and emotional vocals on the sublime The Escapist the lyrics have the feeling that a person/protagonist is lost in some existential crisis and yearns to escape from this waking nightmare while simultaneously also dreaming of creating some type of surreal paradise, possibly my favourite track on this album the absolutely mind blowing Echoes In The Deep starts out with some echoing beacon giving you the feeling that there's a growing fear of been lost within a place devoid of hope ,we're treated to some fantastic keyboards throughout this track by the legendary Derek Sherinian(Ex Dream Theater,Sons Of Apollo & Planet X) at times it sounds like McGouran has channeled the ghost of Eddie Van Halen and took the musicianship to a whole new level,there's also a section were you get to hear the full capabilities of the vocal range of Wanders,hence why this is a truly mind blowing track, let the time machine take us back to some absolutely fantastic homage to 80's synthwave/progressiveness on Afterglow this time we treated to the amazing vocals of Richard Thomson(Ex-Xerath) ,there's a really nice pop sensibility about this song it also feels like you're in some 80's TV Programme or Movie.
Aware that the song may have diffrerent stories and meanings to them if the first part of the album was about been lost in some sort of existential crisis then this part is about becoming aware of things like an understanding of who you are this is pushed to the fore with the excellent The Age Of Discovery there's a noticable change in the atmosphere that has become that bit more darker and the vocals have a little extra aggression in them,there's also a slight element of disdain in the vocals like wanting some more meaningfulness in your life, every element that's already being heard throughout this opus starts to reach it's peak on the sublime Kaleidoscope this gradually builds to a monumental cacophony of emotions combined with razor sharp riffage and epic structures,the synths in the background give off a really dark atmosphere,excuse the pun but it feels like you're travelling through a kaleidoscope of life that's taken you into the unknown, now we taken into a place of tranquility with the beautiful Clarity once again the pop sensibilities are oushed to the fore on this while still maintaining that dark atmosphere,eventually the vocals hit another level near the closing parts of the songs.
Closing track 1977- Ad Infinitum takes us back to where it all began and brings us through each story we've just heard and takes us on an epic journey like our life was flashing before our eyes you see all the good times,bad times and everything in between but you're totally unaware that you're only a small part of what has happened or is about to happen in this universe, when it's drawing near the end there's an extremely dystopian narrative where we're told about every faucet of life including political doctrines,economic doctrines,beliefs,despotic rulers etc and that we are but a little dot in the universe and looking desperately for someone or something to saves us from oursleves.
This is such a modern day masterpiece,when you listen to it you will hear elements of music you've heard in the 80's 90's and even 00's but what you've possibly not heard before is the way the music is arranged, the atmosphere the way it feels like a soundtrack to a movie or life,the way it feels like some sort of existential crisis, the musicianship on this is absolutely mind blowing it's not like people didn't know about them been that damn good,what alot of folk weren't aware of and it seems to be the bands secret weapon is the absolutely earth shifting vocal display of Wanders on this opus, i know it's early in the year but i'm of the opinion that this is going to be a legitimate contender for album of the year,for me this is an absolute game changer and if i'm bing honest even after two months since it was released i get extremely emotional when i'm listening to it as i said it's being a really long time since an album had such a profound effect on me on a personal level
RATING:10/10
