Introducing: ENKOH

Italian rock solo project ENKOH uses delicious melodic guitars to create vivid sonic soundscapes with an engaging sound that they describe as “melodic, eclectic, romantic and powerful.”

ENKOH is the work of Enzo Pignatoro, who’s played guitar for several projects, including the hard rock band Wheels, industrial metal outfit Rublood and rock/electro rock bands I-DEA and Fase. But he never felt the sense of freedom he desired and believed there was something missing. So he decided to try and walk alone – and it’s proven a wise decision.

“As soon as I realized that, the song almost came by themselves,” Enzo told us. “(The ENKOH sound) is instrumental and there’s a lot of guitar. But the whole point is playing melodies and creating sonic texture to narrate feelings.”

Our first taste of this is ENKOH’s debut EP Snøflak, which was released in November. From it, he sent us the third track Signals, which opens up with light echoey guitar ripples that expand into an ascending and meandering lick over light drums. Heavier drums kick in as the track picks up in speed and atmosphere with a blistering little section of high pitched guitar. The pace drops down, then a light section gives way to a spinning riff before the atmosphere begins to gradually build again, before exploding into a grand finale.

On the track, Enzo told us: “The reception has been better than my expectation: more streams than I expected and most of the listeners come from the USA, Brasil and the UK… I wouldn’t have imagined it! The song is actually a simple melody, supported by a synth riff which carries the song in a more electronic world – it makes it more ‘modern.’ There are a lot of technical themes to unfold, but I don’t think that’s the real point: I think it’s a song telling somehow its own story, in a way everyone can enjoy it.” Have a listen via a stream here:

The EP is packed with awesome guitar melodies, but a personal favorite is the powerful opening track As A Matter Of Fact. It opens up with light guitars and distant drum hits, before exploding into a delicious ‘chorus’ flurry over big drums and guitar chords. The pace suddenly drops and a noodling lick takes over and is eventually joined by chords that tee up a lively smash of heavier riffs. The ‘chorus’ riff returns again, and continues under various huge licks as the song hits new heights.

There’s a change of pace in the equally excellent Morning Mist, which begins with light instrumentals that are smashed apart by driving chords and drums supporting a lively opening riff. A fun stabbing riff tees up a funky lick as the song gathers pace with increasingly intense flourishes. And the EP concludes with the more laid-back Snowflakes, which finishes with a delicious guitar solo.

On the EP, Enzo told us: “Snøflak is a concept EP telling the particular phase of my life I was living in the days I wrote it. I think you can tell that by listening to the tracks. Signals tries to convey in music the perception that something in your mind, and in your life, after the hard observation of As A Matter Of Fact and the rage and disorientation of Morning Mist. Once you try to come to terms with it, it’s moving forward until you see the metaphor contained in all those snowflakes. It tries to capture the impression of something which is moving forward through all the doubts and weaknesses each human can have at times.”

ENKOH’s music is influenced by a wide range of styles, genres and guitarists. He calls out prog metal bands like Pain of Salvation, Symphony X, Angra, Ark, Conception, Dream Theater and more recently Vola, Leprous and Tesseract to classic metal bands like In Flames, Helloween, Iron Maiden and Children of Bodom and electronic acts like Royskopp and Kraftwerk.

And Enzo adds: “My favorite band of all time, I think, is The Police, for the melodies, their groove and the capability to mix different elements and make it work perfectly, with a strong, personal touch. Those are elements for me that are very, very important. As a player, my main influence, right now, is Kiko Loureiro. A lot of people hear some Satriani or Vai echoes in my music, I like and have a huge respect for them, but while I can see why someone could say that, I wouldn’t say I am a huge fan of theirs.”

And on what inspires him to write music, he adds: “A lot of work and effort is needed to make a song work properly… but the song’s ideas, what moves to write an entire piece of music, it comes out of the blue. I think it’s difficult for everybody to understand what moves to it. But it’s something really connected with your nature, your real self, I believe.”

It’s been a while since we covered any instrumental rock and metal, but we’re really enjoying the soundscapes and concepts that ENKOH has created. ENKOH is currently working on new material, including a suite that will end the Snøflak concept and a cover of “a strange big hit” by a famous female artist. He’ll then begin preparing a live set with the aim of touring across Europe through the rest of the year.

And he added: “Don’t take Enkoh just as a showoff, it’s not. It’s more about personal feelings and the possible ways to communicate it, because it’s important to share what you feel with other people. You’re not alone unless you want to be.”

You can follow ENKOH on Instagram, and check out his music on Spotify and Apple Music.