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I know that the name Enola Grey is a play on a historically significant ship, yet I'm too lazy to look up the exact story behind it. I'm not going to state what I think it was, for fear of being wrong. I also associate the name Cabal with a character in Mortal Kombat, so the band had me thinking on a couple of levels before I popped the disc in.
Oddly, Cabal didn't really surprise me in the slightest. The band plays slightly melodic death metal, which comes across as similar to the Black Dahlia Murder. Vocalist Mike Fisketti doesn't have quite the range of the Black Dahlia Murder front man, but he certainly holds his own. Enola Grey pumps out some speedy, technical metal, but manages to avoid the annoying, modern clichés.
Cabal contains fast, metallic guitar riffing, along with melodic passages and even an entirely melodic instrumental. Guitarists Andy and Bill obviously know their way up and down a guitar neck. Enola Grey’s melodies aren’t blatant, though. Instead, the band works some mid-paced, high-pitched guitar riffs into their sound, which creates some texture and variation. Still, the boys are usually riffing away at a pretty breakneck speed, but can be found slowing down from time to time.
The vocals throughout Cabal are in the form of a pretty raspy, low scream. Fisketti has a nice set of pipes, and occasionally dips into death metal territory with lower growls. However, his general raspy voice nicely adds to the overall abrasive tone of the band.
Enola Grey ultimately failed to move me, but they are in no way a bad band or lacking musical talent. In music of this fashion, I want something completely heavy and fast or something overly technical. At the moment these boys just kind of tread along, but I have a feeling they will keep treading until they find their niche and start writing some truly amazing songs.
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