CoC : Enthroned - Absence of Life : Review

Enthroned - _Absence of Life_
by: Gino Filicetti (not rated)

This demo comes to us from Davis CA. Enthroned are a four piece band fronted by guitarist, fellow netizen and surprisingly enough, junior high school english teacher (!), John Oster. The sample from The Exorcist III that opens this album completely blew me away, especially the underlying Dracula soundtrack recorded on it, definitely a great way to open up and grab someone's attention. Then as the excitement of the sample peaks, Enthroned come blaring away into their musical madness. At first the vocals disappointed me; I thought the whole rest of the album would have the 'vacuum cleaner', barely audible vox, a la Oppressor, however my fears were quickly dissippated as the next two tracks unfolded. The Coroner influence in Enthroned's music is evident, but they seem to have something extra that makes them rise above that pigeon-hole, seeing as I've never liked Coroner myself. There is an abundance of lead work on this album that is handled very expertly by John Oster, who shows off his classical guitar training on the track 'Toccata'. As the album progressed, I noticed quite a few vocal variations which I thought kept the music from becoming too stagnant. This is especially noticeable on my favorite track, 'Sensory Obliteration'. On 'Absence of Life', Enthroned show off their amazing musical talent by playing break neck speed thrash much in the vein of Metallica's various instrumental outings. And to end off a very professionally put together demo, there is a cover of Hendrix's 'Purple Haze', recorded completely live with "no over dubs or patch ups!" which I found hard to believe.

Contact: ENTHRONED, c/o John Oster, 909 Alvarado Av #22

(article published 12/8/1995)

ALBUMS
10/3/2007	Q Kalis	5.5	Enthroned - Tetra Karcist
12/13/2004	J Smit	6	Enthroned - Xes Haereticum
7/7/1999	P Schwarz	7	Enthroned - The Apocalypse Manifesto
11/19/1998	B Meloon	9	Enthroned - Gothic Disturbance '98
6/7/1998	A Wasylyk	3	Enthroned - Regie Sathanas
4/18/1996	S Hoeltzel	8	Enthroned - Prophecies of Pagan Fire
1/17/1996	G Filicetti	8	Enthroned - Thy Flesh Consumed

DEMOS
6/7/1997	B Meloon	4	Enthroned - Gothic Disturbance

GIGS
1/15/2000	P Azevedo	Marduk / Angelcorpse / Enthroned	Night of the Living Corpses