Coming from things at roughly the same direction as, say, the guys in Riverside playing Opeth songs in a Katatonia covers band Enochian Theory are fine additions to the European prog metal canon – except they are as British as taxes and bad weather. The band wear their influences proudly on their collective sleeves although weave their own thread into the tapestry to come up with an overtly appealing album.

Formed towards the tail end of 2004, Enochian Theory are a massive talented three-piece consisting of Benedict Harris-Haynes (vocals, guitars and piano), Shaun Rayment (bass) and Sam Street (druns and percussion). The band already have two releases under their belts – their 2006 EP ‘A Monument To The Death Of An Idea’ and 2009’s debut album ‘Evolution: Creatio Ex Nihilio’, both self-released although the latter was picked up by Mascot and re-issued by the label in 2010 – and have maintained a fairly consistently high profile across the prog metal world both through well-received tours and a mass of highly complimentary reviews. Their second full-length offering ‘Life… And All It Entails’ should build nicely upon these solid foundations, presenting itself as it does as a full-blown challenge to the genre leaders to sit up and take notice.

With songs ranging from the introspective and alienated (opener ‘This Aching Isolation’, for example) to the more hard-edged and malevolent (‘For Your Glory’) ‘Life… And All It Entails’ encapsulates the beauty and majesty of contemporary progressive metal. The musicianship is flawless, the songs ebb and flow and twist and turn without ever losing their accessibility… It’s not so much an album as a masterclass of the genre. But that’s not to say it lacks soul: if you want to zero in on a highlight, check out the pairing of brooding and passionate ‘Nisi Credideritis, Non Intelligetis’ and its next-in-line, the cutting voice-overed instrumental ‘The Motives Of The Machine’: in just two songs the band say more themselves than many bands can manage in a whole album.

I’ve got a feeling that ‘Life… And All It Entails’ is just the tip of the iceberg for Enochian Theory. There’s a lot more hidden depths to reveal themselves yet.

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