At this point of time if you’ve paid close attention to Washington state’s extreme metal band Enterprise Earth and know the music, then rest assure you know what to fully expect. Since the formation of their existence, these guys have been getting massive appeal across the deathcore and death metal scene with constant album tour cycles, consistency upon consistency and the dedication, influence and musicianship they’ve brought for every album is absolutely remarkable so to speak. The Chosen is the fourth full-length recording by Enterprise Earth and is the follow-up to 2019’s Luciferous which in my opinion is their most ambitious, heaviest, dynamic sounding albums they’ve done to date. The Chosen seems to be following in the same realms of the last record but fans might expect the unexpected because this is far more atmospheric, technical at times and progressive which this case they’ve seem to stray away the deathcore arrangements from their earliest material and became a more contemporary, straightforward and modernized death metal band with technical, progressive and some atmospheric components.
After loving Luciferous so darn much, they’ve tried so many musical structures, tones, compositions and was a extremely well executed of a release. Vocalist Dan Watson, may know him as the former Infant Annihilator singer has improved over the years since he has joined making him a force being reckoned with. Musically, they take styles of technical death metal and progressive deathcore with atmospheric portions which allowed the members from Enterprise Earth to showcase the most murderous, brutalized, technical and crafted album’s they’ve done to date. Songs like They Have No Honor, Skeleton Key, Unleash Hell and Overpass you’ll get machine gun blast beats, looming layers of hard-hitting instrumentals and headbanging memorabilia that’s incredibly crafted, detailed, and thought-provoking. There’s even moments during secondary half of this album where it transitions to a much more melancholic arrangement allowing the tracks to build up suspense.
Vocally, Dan Watson unleashes his incredible talent ranging anywhere from his lows, highs, screams and masterful squeals to the overall unrestrained anger allowing the listener to pull themselves down into the lurking depths of hell. While Luciferous was Enterprise’s most ambitious, heaviest, and experimental records they’ve ever done, The Chosen does have some minor flaws that will turn away most deathcore fans. But with that being said, this record is aggressive, undoubtedly heavy as all hell and the members carefully concentrated to perfectly find the harmonics, sound, production and mixing the formula of chaotic blast beats, deathcore breakdowns, death metal inspired musical components, and Enterprise Earth are not only talented what they do for the music, but they’ve studied long and hard to create The Chosen a album about evolution, growth and maturity. Fans of their past releases will surely enjoy and appreciate greater value of how far they have came along the deathcore community.
Overall Score: 9.0/10
Review by Jake Butler
