I’d never heard of this band although they already made 2 full CD’s, “Bleeding Womb of Ananke” (1997) and “Opus Dementiae Per Spaeculum et in Aenigmate” (2004). Ensoph is an Italian band that consist of 5 musicians with quite unusually names (N-Ikonoclast: vocals, Xraphæl: guitars: & programming, KKTZ: bass. Next-X@nctum: keyboards and Xenos: drums). Their music is also hardly to define; it is a mixture of progressive and death metal with industrial and gothic influences, opera and weird voices. One could expect that such an overdose of influences would made songs very messy, but in this case it isn’t true. I like the weird voices (they do remind me of Annihilator’s Brain Dance), they make you sometimes feel you’re hallucinating.

Personally I don’t like death-metal, but the way Ensoph combines death metal with opera and progressive metal shows this band has the power to make songs with a strong structure and energy. Ensoph knows how to create songs with opposite streams that still keep your attention, travel along with Ensoph and let “PROJECT X-KATON” takes you to a lot of area’s in metalland.

You will have to listen “PROJECT X-KATON” several times, but once I had done so I used the repeat button quite often. Every time I listen to the album I discover new elements; “D-Generation” is such a song, it’s amazing. The intro and the last track are short tracks with spoken words, “Condemned (In the penal colony)” and “Leaving No Trace Behind” are progressive songs. With “Un Petalo Di Pieta” the band underwrites their Italian descent, although typical Italian elements (fast, emotional and spontaneous) are missing in this song, “Un Petalo Di Pieta” has a lot of industrial elements and at the end the song gets evil (listen to the screaming voices).

Some songs (“Condemned”, “Icons in the Dust”, “Leaving No Trace Behind”) are prepared to be played on the radio; these songs are more accessible, therefore the power of these songs has disappeared. I think these versions enfeeble the strength of Ensoph’s songs.