EN STIGMA – “Reforming the Universe” – deluxe remastered edition (self-released 16 May 2020)

En Stigma come from Ioannina, Greece. They call the style they perform “Galactic Progressive Metal”! The description made me wonder what would their sound be like and I anxiously pushed play to check out their debut album “Reforming the Universe”.

What we have here is a very interesting mix of many different metal and non-metal styles. En Stigma use extreme metal, symphonic metal, modern metal and classic heavy metal and they mix them with progressive rock and experimental music. So, you get the picture.

En Stigma decide to use both male and female vocals, folk/ethnic elements and traditional instruments to create an own atmosphere and make their songwriting richer.

The riffs of En Stigma in “Reforming the Universe” are very interesting. The band has a very good sense of melody. The bass is the spine of their songwriting. Everything keeps the interest high until the end of the album.

The production is cold and icy in a familiar way. It creates layers of matter, space and time where you can let yourself travel.

The band’s lyrics seem to have the “galactic” dimension of their style. Science fiction, the universe, our planet the Earth and humanity are probably the top issues to appear in the album making nice symbolisms and icons.

My favorite track of “Reforming the Universe” is “Aging Star”, but the album can (and should) be listened as a whole. It keeps the interest throughout, the musicians are very good, there is a great songwriting with good production and the different influences are well filtered. En Stigma did more than great in their debut album!