Enemy Of The Sun are being promoted as "cyber thrash metal" by their record label Massacre Records. Quite an innovative marketing term, but in reality all it means is that this band plays a new breed of metal often dubbed simply as 'modern metal' for it's usage of somewhat mechanical production techniques and its integration of lots of trendy stuff into the mix. Hence, "Caedium" is also a combination of things like clean vocals, metalcore riffs, thrash metal aggression, and innovative song structures that dare to experiment outside the unwritten laws of what is essentially thrash metal at its root.
This type of approach to songwriting can also be found in other bands like Raunchy, Raintime, and why not also Dew-Scented who are all brave enough to break some of those norms set by the metal elitists to their favorite genre. The result is a diverse album with a number of different influences, even some far-out stuff like nu-metal occasionally, and most importantly, an extremely catchy package all around. You have some songs which have more of a tribal and/or folksy feel due to some curious guitar passages, where the band's experimentalism shines through positively, but you also have other tracks which sound like they've been handmade for the American modern rock radio stations. Case in point, "Paradigm", which sounds like it could've been a Disturbed/Ill Niño song. But delve yourself into something like "Ticket" and all you'll find are triggered drums and rapid-fire breakdown riffs, which break out to jazzy prog-rock interludes seemingly at random, only to go full-blast modern thrash metal on you straight after. Not exactly your normal easy-listening stuff, now is it?
This is why it'll almost certainly leave the tr00 metal heads in the cold, and potentially even attract some scenesters to check out what's going happening on this record. I for one applaud the band's desire to push their sound in lots of different directions, even if the record feels like a collection of individual songs rather than a full album as a result. Maybe that's why "Caedium" comes across somewhat unfocused once you're done with the record. That said, there are some very good songs to be discovered here, if anything 'modern' is your thing in metal.
[7]
Download: I Am One, Paradigm, Ticket
For the fans of: Raunchy, Raintime, Sybreed, modern metal
Listen: Myspace
Release date 28.05.2010
Massacre Records
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