Review by Greg on July 15, 2024.

Five full years after their first EP, Envenomed finally managed to reach the debut stage with 2014's Evil Unseen. Considering that this is the record that led the band to be signed (albeit shortly) by Punishment 18 Records, with no prior knowledge you would expect an aggressive thrash record, but it really isn't that different from said EP, which showcased a brand of melodic thrash with way more emphasis on the first term than on the second.

A good part of this is on the shoulders of the frontman Mav, whose voice manages to be simultaneously the most distinctive trait about the band, and its limit – the former since, well, he's a great vocalist per se, perhaps too close to your typical metalcore singer, but I usually dig his performances on every Envenomed release, and here it's no different. The latter is, sadly, because I don't think he manages to put his voice to full use most of the time, meaning that you're always left wanting for that refrain capable of getting stuck in your head for several days, while it never arrives and you're left with something like 'Spoils of Victory' where you don't even understand where the verse ends and the chorus begins at first listen, or 'Burn the Sun' that revolves around literally one single note for the most part... let's say I'm fine with having a less aggressive approach on your music, but I'm also expecting some more thought-out melodic line in its place, especially when you seriously have a dead ringer for Bullet for My Valentine's vocalist at the mic (although now with a sprinkle of Joey Belladonna on the higher notes – turns out that casual Anthrax mention I made earlier wasn't so casual after all).

Evil Unseen's biggest shortcoming is perhaps the fact that its (many) songs aren't exactly interchangeable, but they're still pretty hard to distinguish from one another. I singled out the two above because I'd noted their names while listening, otherwise you can bet I wouldn't have been able to remember which ones they were. There are a few exceptions in the de facto opener 'Will of Man', which isn't half bad and delivers yet another great solo in the band's career, and 'Falling' or 'Mechanical Enemy' containing a couple of the more successful refrains. I also think 'Disobey the Beast' works decently for what it tries to be, despite being a potential outlier with its tough midtempo formula and guest growled vocals. But apart from those, stuff like 'Within Me', 'The Shadowland', or the pointless instrumental 'Spirit Machine' do little more than string out the album length, to the point that attention loss is almost guaranteed.

A couple of generally faster cuts at the very end arrive maybe a bit too late to salvage the whole thing (although 'Global Deception' surely ends up on a high note), and as a result Evil Unseen is the kind of album that contains good stuff, when you come to think about it, but you really need to be in the right mindset to scavenge for it. I can definitely see myself enjoying Envenomed's recipe, but not as things stand here yet.

Rating: 6.6 out of 10