CoC : Enter My Silence - Remotecontrolled Scythe : Review

Enter My Silence - _Remotecontrolled Scythe_
(Mighty Music, 2001)
by: Pedro Azevedo (7 out of 10)

A new In Flames record, so soon? But wait, Enter My Silence are not even Swedish; they are from Finland. Some passages in this record could have probably fooled me, though. Enter My Silence base their music on the kind of sound In Flames developed in their fine _Clayman_ [CoC #48] and try to build some variety from there. They succeed to a reasonable extent and have definitely made a record that is very competent and quite entertaining, but they struggle to shake off the In Flames similarities. Running at just under 35 minutes, _Remotecontrolled Scythe_ packs plenty of guitar leads and hooks, smart melodies and riffs, competent rhythmic structures and good Gothenburg-like vocals. The first track absolutely reeks of In Flames, and even though Enter My Silence try to be a bit more inventive from that point onwards, the Swedes' influence can be heard throughout most of the album. Of course if you like In Flames, then _Remotecontrolled Scythe_ is likely to be worth investigating. For me it proved to be enjoyable in purely musical terms, but when set in the context of what has already been done in the genre, this is not good enough to become an especially relevant record. Still, the band seems to have vast potential; maybe they will be able to evolve into something more unique in the future.

[Paul Schwarz: "_RS_ could be a missing In Flames album with a few programmed touches added in for variation -- that's how "early In Flames" Enter My Silence sound to me. I could cite half a dozen other influential (and not) Gothenburg bands in trainspotting Enter My Silence's influences, but it would be pretty pointless. This is neither exciting nor fresh-sounding, and I'd recommend Darkane or God Forbid's latest albums if you want to hear something interesting done within this aggressive/melodic mould."]

(article published 12/8/2001)