Strange name, familiar sound
Ah, I’m on home turf here. Out Of Enemies must be the only Westcountry band that remembers to play their home venues regularly, so they’ve been building a decent following for a while (hint hint). This debut album doesn’t disappoint, and should go a long way to breaking these guys into the mainstream consciousness of the rest of the country.
Right from its explosive start, this album is somewhat unpolished but accomplished and engaging right the way through. Unlike a lot of the ‘cookie-cutter’ metal bands out there, here today and gone the next, Out Of Enemies embrace those long-forgotten musical devices of dynamics and variation in what they do.
Track 2 is relentless and heavy, but never sacrifices the melodic fluidity of the guitar and the vocals never blend with the background to the point of obscurity. What these guys have that a lot of metal bands have sacrificed is melody, and the ability to turn it down occasionally, and it really shows in the more original riffs like track 3. There’s even (gasp) an acoustic moment on track 6, delving more into the territory of melodic rock. Strangely the screamed vocals that work so well elsewhere on the album don’t seem to work on track 6 when compared to the straight singing. In fact they should mix in the ordinary vocals more often it was a refreshing contrast. The same goes for track 8, it melds heavy and light passages seamlessly.
It’s more accessible than out-and-out thrash or anything ending in ‘core’, and the influences of Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, and particularly In Flames are very apparent. One album does not maketh a band, and there will be a lot of pressure on Out Of Enemies to produce harder, heavier material for their next album, but then they are in danger of becoming one of the masses of sub-standard metallers out there. It’s a fine line. But if they stick with the melodic mixture on ‘Into The Darkness’, they’ll gain more radio play.
Overall, this is a very promising debut in an overcrowded genre.