Album Review: Enemy Awake – Rotten Soul

Band: Enemy Awake
Title: Rotten Soul
Label: Independent
Release date:  December  31st,  2025
Country: Sweden
Format reviewed: High-Quality Digital Recording 

Album Review: Enemy Awake – Rotten Soul by Sílvia

On the last day of 2025, Enemy Awake released their EP “Rotten Soul”, and I think that’s cool, there’s no better way to say goodbye to the old year with some crushing Melodic Death Metal. For those of you who were doing other things that day, well, it’s never too late to give this album a spin!

The vocal duties in this EP are shared by Ivan Castro and his brother Carlo C. And while Ivan is in charge of playing all guitars and bass, drums are smashed by Sebastian from Inferner Studio (Malmö, Sweden).

“Too Empty to Bleed​” starts in a mid tempo, guitars play in a dark tone and build an oppressive atmosphere, the sound wraps the listener as a deadly embrace. And harsh vocals do a great work, sounding aggressive and at the same time painful. The chorus “I’m the living dead / This hollow life will never end / Every step is pain” hits hard… Drums speed up a bit when the guitar solo arrives, and my only complaint is that the bass pedal sounds a bit too loud. But this song is a great one to start this dark EP.

“No Way Out” follows, and this song has more fast tempos and hypnotic guitar loops. The main feeling when I’m listening to it is desperation, the certainty that no one is going to save us from anything. Drums are intense, they go ahead like a precise machine giving no respite. I love how cymbals are smashed while Ivan is singing the chorus. And the short guitar solo fully encapsulates the sense of hopelessness that’s present in this song. 

When “Following the Light” kicks in, I feel it’s time for a horror story, with that unsettling intro… and truth is, this song maintains the dark atmosphere that’s running through all the album. The melodic lines in the chorus brings me to a comfortable place, even if made of sadness and grief, and vocals are a bit darker than in the previous song and with a bit of reverb, which makes perfect sense to the whole thing. 

And when it’s all almost done, here’s the pearl of this EP, in my opinion: “My Hell is Yours” is a devastating track with a blackened death style; it’s painful, musically overwhelming, with slower tempos and guitars building a suffocating wall of sound, wrapping a tale of horror and pain. Lyrics depict a story of torment so vivid that you can perfectly imagine it, and almost feels like being there, burned by the flames of hell. Every drum hit is precise, the percussion marks a path of no return towards insanity, and vocals are dreadful and obscure. The guitar solo burns like embers, this song really hits hard.

“Sangre” is a demo track, a short instrumental piece which marks the end of this EP with very good guitar melodies and leads, in case you were asking for more. 
Short but effective, “Rotten Soul” by Enemy Awake is a descent into dark lands. 8/10

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8/10 To Greatness and Glory!
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