If there' s something to describe the Obtained Enslavement music this is “visionary black magic”.
Apart from the ancestral and primitive debut “Centuries of Sorrow”, an album that wasn't dark as the early black metal act but a hybrid of death and old-style black metal, the first band's milestone is the immortal symphonic hymn “Witchcraft” . If one think to the commercial success of a band such Dimmu Borgir and to the underserved secondary exposition of that incredible Norwegian creation it's senseless, because an album like “Witchcraft” is better of the also excellent Dimmu Borgir “Stormblast”, but everyone knows that Dimmu Borgir released a wider spectrum album with “Enthrone…” conquering a new audience. Differently the path of Obtained Enslavement is for the glory, the cult, not for a planned victory but for an emotive evolution beyond the void of a maelstrom chaos in a epic dream surrounded by sorrowful darkness, the stars lightened by a classic-like symphony. Obtained Enslavement is the first symphonic black metal band that has mixed the classical sensibility for the melody and part of its concept with the dark coldness of black metal. The arrangements are an awesome connection of the superb melodic ideas and riffs, the main factor is the atmosphere, a monumental vision, a bit oneiric, a sad and sombre vision of a world of black mysteries.

The third album of the band is a confirm of their excellence, a more epic version of the winning black symphony of “Witchcraft”, another time with a veil of melancholic mood. In “Soulblight” there's as usual the diabolical screaming of Pest, the classic-like melodies and arrangements, this time a in bit more linear way. A dark battle dominated by sombre forces, a magical hymn of destruction under a sad horizon or a nightmare made in solitude surrounded by majestic places, this is the spirit of “Soulblight”. Another times the mystical and majestic vision of dark feelings are the result of a masterful work.
Listen to that masterpiece is like a dark saga, medieval inspired, a mission in the fog, an astral conspiracy, another time a magical gem.

The real flop in the Obtained Enslavement's carrier is the unexpected “The Shepherd And The Hounds Of Hell” , a fair heavy-black-death album, but nothing more, all the unique classical influences went away for a metal and standard musical style, all the superiority of their arrangements was gone. An original band became something normal, losing the magical energy of their composition, their excellence. It's really sad to see a legend, a cult band, fading away in the grey mass of mediocrity, but the two gems they made are immortal albums that have contributed to dreams and visions of mine, sorceries written in stones.