Engulfed - Engulfed in Obscurity

ENGULFED - Engulfed in Obscurity (BLOOD HARVEST - LP 2017)

Oh, finally I managed to put my hands on Engulfed's debut LP "Engulfed in Obscurity". This long awaited album was unleashed back in 2017, so it took me a while to got it, but it's better late than never. And as I can see, it's already been seven years since "Through the Eternal Damnation" was released, which is crazy how fast time goes by. Anyways, Engulfed is for me one of Turkey's trinity of killer bands - along with Demonizer and Burial Invocation - where all these bands share some members, but each play slightly different kind of old school death metal. Engulfed is my personal favourite here. 

I can only talk in positive words about their music, I cannot find any weak points here, nothing what would bother me or piss me off. It all sounds exactly as I like. But what else can I write, if Engulfed takes the best elements of Swedish and old Finnish death metal (for example, check some similarities to Amorphis’ debut in “Invocation of Death and Misery”!!!), especially their ability to incorporate killer melodic lines into aggressive and nasty, brutal death metal, which on the other hand would be alike to Incantation, Dead Congregation and so on. They do all that in great style, with a whole bunch of quality, killer riffs, great arrangements... I like the obscure feel of their music, its viciousness, diversity, I also like that raw production they achieved. Finally, I also love how powerful it all sounds and that despite being brutal death metal band, there are still some parts, which are memorable and which give a more atmosphere to the music. 

There are totally straight forward, fast and savage tracks like "The Halls of Grim Eternity", which will break many necks of bangers, who love such merciless death metal attack. But then next song comes in, stunning "Conqueror from Beyond the Outer Gates", which is much slower and more melodic in the opening part, which sounds good enough to feel my jaw hitting the floor. Then they again attack with full ferocity, so the song turns 180 degrees in the style and atmosphere, but that's how I like it! It's massive sounding death metal, you can be sure that it is great quality stuff and your neck won't be spared. From start to finish, it sounds great and I can only recommend it strongly. For me, it is a real highlight. 

Standout tracks: "Conqueror from Beyond the Outer Gates", “Invocation of Death and Misery”, “Inseminated with Demon Seed” 

Verdict: 85/100