While making the list of upcoming 2012 releases I'm excited about, the Enth/Amarok split album -- due out in March -- completely slipped my mind. But low-and-behold, I was pleasantly reminded today with the pre-release of the entire album on the Orca Wolf Records Bandcamp page.
Amarok released a killer debut album in late 2010 that featured a veritable vocal assault with three pretty intense vocalists, coupled with some slow, trudging, sludgy doom -- albeit a little rough around the edges at times. Their latest split maintains the raw intensity of their first album, but also shows a compositional maturity. The nearly 20 minute track is never rushed and allows for the large swelling guitar harmonies to slowly develop.
The flip side is a crushing 18 minute song by the Polish funeral doom band Enth called "Caverns of Advices". While their 2011 self-titled album was decent, it wasn't particularly spectacular. There was excessive guitar "chugging" that detracted from the droning and "dirgey" atmosphere that the genre is known for -- leaving it feeling kind of boring. This new track is a complete 180 to their previous material, sounding more like an Asunder song than anything they had previously done and making me excited for any future releases they may have.
