Enemy of Reality – Rejected Gods (2014)

Featuring all the right ingredients to make a great Symphonic Metal band, today we have Enemy of Reality and their bombastic debut release “Rejected Gods”. Filled with catchy vocal melodies and excellent atmospheric passages, these newcomers from Greece deliver the WOW factor with 45 minutes of brilliant music.

After the typical warm-up intro, the band starts things with the super catchy “My Own Master”, a track that features Mike LePond handling the bass guitar duties. In this song we are gladly impressed by the very mellow and yet powerful vocal performances, allowing Iliana Tsakiraki to instantly standout. The band’s music is much like your Serenity / Sirenia type of Symphonic Metal with Gothic elements, and they greatly interate their guest vocals into the band’s unique groove as we can hear in “Needle Bites” which incidentally features Ailyn from Sirenia.

Having a knack for dramatic choir arrangements, “Her Descending Ghost” is one of our favorite tracks in this release thanks to the very dramatic arrangements and solid riffs. The album gradually continues to improve with epic tracks like “The Bargaining” and another favorite “Grief Divine”, both featuring playful and original elements that make them unique and very enjoyable. The band’s keyboardist Marianthe does a great job in creating solid atmospheric passages as well as adding funky elements into the mix to get the listener engaged in songs like “Torn Apart”.

For the most purist fans of the genre that need tons of arrangements and extra lush orchestrations, “Twist of Time” will surely keep them busy. The band closes their release with a guest appearance of one of Greece’s most recognized Metal female singers Maxi Nil in “Step into the Light”, a very dramatic and somber piece that closes this release perfectly. Overall, “Rejected Gods” is as good as any ‘big budget’ Symphonic Metal production and greatly showcases Enemy of Reality’s serious music making abilities. If you like bands like Epica, After Forever, Serenity, Visions of Atlantis, etc., this is one album that will keep you entertained.

Label: F.Y.B Records

Release: June 30th, 2014

Genre: Symphonic Metal

Country: Greece