SEKENENRA

I must say, while I might not have believed it while listening to the saturated heaviness of Senmuth's earliest work, I did miss the heavier Senmuth. After this Russian project went down a more mellow and ambient path, new doors were certainly opened in terms of the things that Senmuth could do with his music, but the energy seemed to escape. Years later, Senmuth has really polished many aspects of his execution and production, lending a much more effective metal sound than would be possible earlier on. While 'Секененра' lacks an epic sense of songwriting, it does make up for it with a grand, fully realized sound. Flaws aside, this is some of the heaviest music Senmuth has ever dished out.

Back are the vocals of Senmuth himself; a voice we rarely hear much in the music since he phased it out with the rest of the industrial metal craze that dominated his early material under the name. Senmuth can be described here as merging his Egyptian-themed ambient work and dark metal sensibility very well to make an epic symphonic display. While Senmuth generally uses artificial instruments (instead opting for computer emulation sounds) the orchestral tones are very well used, and at times even have the same effect a real orchestra might have. There's still however, a great deal of the music where the listener can certainly tell that not everything they are listening to has been performed by a human being.

The guitar work here generally consists of large power chords; nothing Senmuth plays here demonstrates a superb sense of musicianship. In terms of the production and execution of 'Секененра,' the real highlight lies in the sheer amount of detail to sound Senmuth has put into it. While anyone might assume that a man releasing so many albums in such little time would not give his music such consideration, but Senmuth is sure to include small nuances that don't reveal themselves until after a few listens. For example, the haunting percussive interlude 'Hqa xAswt' has some subtle female vocal work stirring around in the background, giving the mental picture of a swirling Middle-Eastern bazaar.

The only real issue with the album is the lack of quality guitar riffs, which does unfortunately have quite an impact on the album's strength. That aside however, this is quite a well done album, Senmuth has shown here that he has honed his craft to the point where most of the production issues are gone, and petty problems have been solved over time. With a little more technical complexity thrown into the guitar work, Senmuth may very well create an amazing metal album with his talents.

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