INTRODUCING: The Enigma Division
After a few bumps in the road, 2023 could finally be the year for Irish progressive metal outfit, THE ENIGMA DIVISION. They have tested the waters with a collection of singles dispersed between the last couple of years, giving us some insight into the thought process of a project which has been a long time in the making.
“Myself and Ronan [bass] have been in bands together since about the age of 12, on and off, playing in different projects,” explains guitarist Conor McGouran. “Pretty much when XERATH folded around early 2017 that was kind of the catalyst of how this started. We were like ‘why don’t we get together and start working on an original project?’ which is something we’ve always wanted to do so it was great to find that kind of opportunity to do everything we wanted in one project.”
THE ENIGMA DIVISION combine a wealth of inspiration and influence accumulated throughout their time as musicians with the plan to bring something fresh and exciting to the table. “With our generation being the 80s and 90s it’s a whole amalgamation of stuff we’ve enjoyed over the years,” discusses Conor. “Anything from film scores to progressive metal to jazz fusion. It’s very much a melting pot of different influences. I know it sounds kind of cliché but it’s a mixture of kind of everything, RUSH, DREAM THEATER, it’s quite synthwave-y which is kind of the glue which ties it all together.”
Their self-titled debut album is on the horizon and has been in the making for quite some time. But as with most things music related recently their schedule didn’t quite go to plan. “The album was due for release in 2020 and we all know what happened then!” Chuckles Conor. “In a way, it was kind of a blessing as it gave us a chance to go back and look at a few things and rearrange some elements that we weren’t necessarily 100% happy with. We can’t wait for it to be out there and for everyone to get a chance to listen to it and then we can finally move on to the next release. We’ve got a second album sort of brewing already! The tracks have gone through various iterations along the way, particularly if there is a new lyrical idea and we want to change the flow to incorporate them. Funnily enough, we ended up simplifying a few things!”
“We felt some elements were overly technical. We keep a backlog of our ideas for inspiration further down the line,” adds Ronan. “The final track on the album is 20 minutes long and we almost went down the classic prog route of splitting it into chapters. There were about 200 layers involved in the track overall and our computer was struggling to process it. It can be quite easy to get carried away and just adding a few extra embellishments, particularly if you focus on the synth elements. If you have a limited array of instruments involved it tends to keep you a bit more focused and on track.”
There are a lot of layers and intricacies held within the chapters of this release which required a lot of care and attention to ensure they slotted into place. As well as their own creative prowess, THE ENIGMA DIVISION recruited the assistance of numerous guests to bring their vision to life. “Ronan and myself do the majority of the writing, coming up with ideas, working on the orchestration etc. We’ll then send them over to Ben who is our drummer and vocalist and he’ll work on the melodic structuring and put his own twist on things with the drum tracks. I was quite acquainted with a seven string throughout my time in XERATH and the groove we had in mind for The Escapist needed a bit of extra heft so to scratch that itch of curiosity I got an eight string and it was perfect for that track, to create some bowel movements! It actually creates a nice balance with the synths too,” informed Conor. “We collaborated with a few people on these songs. Firstly, William Alex Young from DEFENCES who is a great guy, originally he was going to be the actual singer of the band but due to logistical complications, it just wasn’t practical. Thankfully he was still happy for us to use some of the ideas he had worked on. Rich Thompson guests on the track Afterglow so there is still a lot of XERATH DNA running through the project. We also got Sam Bell from MASK OF JUDAS to contribute a solo and of course, the great Derek Sherinian features on Echoes In The Deep. We were kind of just brazen enough to get hold of his email and send him some rough demos and funnily enough initially he made up this alter ego and pretended to be someone else before coming clean later in the process. We were delighted and felt very lucky to get him involved.”
This project is still in its infancy in the grand scheme of things but despite this the band have already been offered an opportunity they couldn’t refuse. “We had no intention of taking this project out on the road,” states Conor. “We got some great feedback on the singles from different people and Simon Hall happened to get in touch with us and asked if we wanted to play Bloodstock. How could you say no to that? Obviously, there are a lot of things we need to consider with all the layers our songs contain. We’re actually going to announce a live drummer which will give Ben a bit more freedom on stage too. We just need to blow the old cobwebs off!”
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