The word Enthrallment has been a nightmare for my distro for a good year or two. For some reason their debut MCd was a boulder weighing immobile among the other records, nobody ever cared about buying even one copy. I had to use them as a trade resource at every occasion and still there are copies nested up there in the stock. I wasn't sure this was the same Enthrallment becouse they have changed logo since the Ep, but once I recognized they were the same band from Bulgaria I was sweating cold. Now exactly, dear Michele, what the fuck was wrong with that Cd? Because, as far as I can tell, this "Smashed Brain Collection" is a damn fine album, damn! I don't remember having heard the mini but if the stuff was so good I should really nut-kick myself for not having pushed it before. First of all, the Cd cover looks good and nasty, there's this sort of African chieftain with greasy dreadlocks contemplating his blood encrusted tools in front of a table chock full of brains, and the poor guests lying with their craniums split wide open. Ah ah. Great shit. I wonder when is that cannibal going to feast of the soft gray matter. I cannot tell anything else becouse the promo came with no sort of packaging at all, even the Cd was burned. Fuck. But this cover looks good indeed. Tony Koehl (which also worked for Goratory and Abysmal Torment) looks more focused than usual here. This way I cannot say anything about the lyrics, but I remember the grammar of the Ep was at the level of MX from Brazil (eh). The Cd also offer some surprises from the start. There is a strong multimedia section, with one crisp videoclip (nicely done, especially the bald guy eating entrails, ah) and half an hour of live footage, plus samples from upcoming label releases (well I am not much happy about adverts withing a cd, but this time at least this looks new). Musically, Enthrallment play tight and brutal, but absolutely not mechanical, Death fucking Metal. For once I really like the singer's vocals, they remind me a cross of Mike from (ex) Sinister and very early Necrophagist ("Onset of Putrefaction" era before they turned intolerably gay), they're utterly deep and understandable as well, with a strange tone that makes them sound as if they're recorded multiple times and then layered. Structurally, Enthrallment can be considered solid Brutal Death with some real neat Barnes-era Cannibal Corpse vibes, tremolo picking and slam chugs, early Deeds of Flesh blastbeats, and a concrete, structured framework. It is weird hearing two bands like Enthrallment and Lust of Decay play the same music and sound so completely distant from each other at the same time. This is Brutal Death with soul and a warm, wrapping sound, with that delicious wood block snare drum which helps cutting the songs pace. The riffs here are not just the TXDM kind of "invent some riffs and scatter them randomly across an album, doesn't matter which song they end up in": the songs have a clear beginning and a clear end, while sounding every inch guttural and gore soaked. This is real good Brutal Death from a country that maybe lacks some solid referral since maybe Corpse (which to my memories were not that good at all, not to mention the R.U. Dead? ripoff logo). Sometimes the golden age Cannibal Corpse resemplance becomes truly flattering (some riffs in the second half of the album almost sound as if they were taken from "The Bleeding"... Take Total Zombie Domination for example... Now that if that name alone isn't a tribute...), but that's a good thing to this day and age, considering the big cannibals now play so different. They're better than Putrilage in this, at least. Ehe. Solid, crunchy and with a load of heavy Skinless like breakdowns that don't sound like tarantella, this is a good broootal release, no, really!

 

Tracks (9): 1 - Smashed Brain Collection 2 - Carnal Affection 3 - Experiment With You 4 - Disgruntled 5 - Total Zombie Domination 6 - Mutants 7 - Supporting the Chaos and Hate 8 - Graveyard 9 - Awaiting the Death