Enforcer: Zenith (2019, Nuclear Blast Records)

The Swedes Enforcer have won over the public through effort and dedication, playing speed metal with shades of classic heavy metal in which they mix both genres in a subtle way and with a lot of personality, characterizing their music with sharp guitars, high-pitched voices and a frenetic pace, elements that have been present throughout his career.

But the tables have turned. After fifteen years of career and several line-up changes, they bring us their fifth studio album, which they have titled Zenith and which the band itself has called “risky.” And that is the adjective that best defines this new album, a different album that could be a turning point in his career.

But before getting into the matter, we are going to focus on some important points of the album before breaking down its content. The album has been recorded at the Soundtrade Studios in Stockholm and mastered at the Hvergelmer Studios in Arvika (Sweden), produced by the band itself and with an extraordinary art design by Velio Josto, a designer who has worked with many bands between which we can find Warlord, Ostrogoth or Medieval Steel.

The album opens with Die For The Devil, the first single from Zenith and with a clearly heavy sound with overtones of eighties hard rock. The rhythm of the song and how catchy its chorus is are pleasantly surprising. The voices sound clean and punchy, although the use of high-pitched voices to which we are normally accustomed does not stand out too much, which also contrasts with an elaborate and electric guitar solo.

Zenith Of The Black Sun starts off more relaxed, with guitars riding to the rhythm of the drums and the inclusion of synthesizers that give the introduction a well-worked depth. They soon disappear to make way for Olof, who does a masterful job on the vocals, perfectly cohering the instrumental part with the vocal lines and provoking a sensation of harmony reminiscent of eighties heavy metal that will delight music lovers. more traditional metal.

The final part of the song is, simply, masterful, with a very successful guitar riff that ends abruptly giving way to Searching For You, the second preview of Zenith with a fast rhythm and recovering the sound they had us. customary in previous releases. Despite searching for that sound that defined them as a band, they incorporate some more personal elements and deliver one of the best songs on the album, which for the moment is a complete success.

In Regrets they allow an introduction to the rhythm of a calm piano, introducing the voices increasingly without starting completely, maintaining the moderate tempo as the rest of the instruments are introduced, giving freedom to the newcomer Jonathan Nordwall, who plays at ease with the six strings without standing out above the rest of the instruments. Surprisingly, they replace the guitar solo with the use of violins accompanied by the piano itself, giving Regrets a supernatural force and a peculiar atmosphere, in a good way. It is undoubtedly one of the most risky songs on the album and remains an essential piece, which fits perfectly with the rest of the songs that make up the album.

We return to the more metallic sound of a renewed Enforcer that explores the limits of its creativity with The End Of A Universe by incorporating some slower rhythms that contrast with some solid and more technical riffs, without abusing these. contrasts but producing a sensation of musical maturity that they did not enjoy before. Tobias Lindqvist provides an excessive depth with his bass, an element that is often imperceptible to the human ear but essential like few others, which in this case gives the ensemble an essential breadth as we can see in Sail On, a very lively and characterful song in which the use of those metal guitars disappears and we find choruses that we could well find in a hard rock album from the eighties. But don’t let this confuse you, the change is appreciated and without a doubt we can perceive that the band is comfortable with this change of scenery, which suits them wonderfully.

One word would be enough to define One Thousand Years Of Darkness, and that is “indispensable“. The theme Enforcer needed. The voices are perfect, the chorus is catchy enough and the choruses are, simply, round. Here we find everything, an energetic guitar solo and fast drums that channel a masterful theme that links with Thunder And Hell, one of the fastest cuts on the album and with a clear speed focus, one of those that we like so much. and that Jonas Wikstrand takes advantage of to get the most out of his drums, delivering a clear blow to the listener’s face. Thunder And Hell is a bad-tempered and very motivating song, one of the most enjoyable songs live, but one of the few that we will find in Zenith. I emphasize again that perhaps the band’s formula was running out and the best they could have done was to pursue other paths, but the sound that dazzled us was that of their debut “Into The Night” or the one we found in Death By Fire, here somewhat diluted and which partly reminds me of the blow I suffered when listening to their second release Diamond“, in which they took a different direction and which at the time I did not know how to understand, I admit.

With Forever We Worship The Dark they give us a more relaxed cut after the previous shock, a more melodic song with a good guitar duet that introduces us to a darker and more epic world at the same time. The instrumental part after the second chorus is a delight of punchy melodies and a laborious guitar solo that matches very well with the rest of the ensemble. With Forever We Worship The Dark they give us a more relaxed cut after the previous shock, a more melodic song with a good guitar duet that introduces us to a darker and more epic world at the same time. The instrumental part after the second chorus is a delight of punchy melodies and a laborious guitar solo that matches very well with the rest of the ensemble.

And so concludes the fifth episode in Enforcer‘s career, an album very different from what we are used to and that stands out for the combination of elements and genres that it has been able to introduce to an exploited sound, distancing itself from the usual canons to deliver a risky proposal from which they succeed. It could be said that the path that has been opened before this young band is extensive and if they know how to take advantage of it, it is more than likely that this twist to their musical proposal will take them even further.

It is also worth highlighting Olof‘s double work as a vocalist, having published Zenith in its entirety in Spanish, an arduous task of which he can be more than proud of the final result, which does not clash at all with the theme of the album and will the delights of Spanish speakers, who are not few.