I consider myself a newcomer to the Enigma fold, but after browsing through their catalogue of albums, I found that "Screen Behind the Mirror" stands above the rest as Michael Cretu's most disciplined, theatrical and energetic effort to date. Few criticize Enigma for being too dramatic, but this is what truly sets it apart from the debatable genres it has been placed in. "Screen Behind the Mirror" carries the best of all worlds, and those who adore the previous albums will be right at home with this puppy if they still harbor doubt about it.

The first Enigma was inventive and provided a taste of things to come with its erotic beats and unique samples swooping in and out to ethnic chanting and simple words of wisdom, a technique that would be greatly improved upon in "Cross of Changes", but definitely shines in "Smell of Desire" and the title track of this album (minus the ethnic chanting).

The third Enigma was very subtle and meditative, and so was not an album to dance to, but "SBTM" possesses a raw energy that will have you swaying to the groove and stomping your feet, especially in the primal-like "Push the Limits" and vocal-heavy "Modern Crusaders". The rest in between are equally great and like I mentioned before, cement it as a truly underrated masterpiece, standing next to "Cross of Changes" as mandatory owning. If you're new to Enigma like I was, it would be a smart move to start out with this, and then if you're good and satisfied with it, dive right in with the rest that Cretu has to offer.

MCMMLVIIICIXVIX was 5 stars, cross of changes was 3 at best, le roi was 4-maybe 4.5 stars, but this one sucks. The sampling of Verdi or whoever it was is popularizing and stinkifying to high hell some incredibly gorgeous operatic music. It's shameful, and Cretu maybe should be castrated--oh, wait, He must be to hit those feminine notes he does. The female vocalist (not Cretu) is the only good singing on this record. The voice of Cretu is as usual saturated in reverb and delay, which really crapifies the sound, and makes it seem like he was desperate to somehow make this feeble attempt at music sound good. There are some good melodies here and there, but they are too broken up by garbage that the album as a whole is unlistenable and annoying. Enigma's strength is melody and weaving it into an album length song-experience, and this one entirely fails. The artwork seems to reflect the music too--choose an album based on the picture--it's about right.

I love Enigma. I really love Enigma. "The Screen Behind The Mirror" is another great offering from this tight, creative ensemble. Whenever I want to kick it and calm down (which I need to do because I do get easily worked up my friends say) I put on an Enigma disc and fly. I don't know why it took me so long to get around to this one but I was not let down. I especially connect with "Silence Must Be Heard" and "Gravity Of Love". And I have to say, I really love the artwork on their covers. The visuals put me in in the mood for the aural experience.

One big complaint: This CD is way to short!!!!!

The melodies on this CD seem to be more cohesive and enjoyable to chill to than those on their 3rd cd (Le Roi). Smell of Desire is easily my favorite and qualifies as one of the best dark/ambient tracks in my collection. I don't much care for the Carmina Burana stuff laced throughout a few of the songs as I think it clashes with the moody relaxed atmosphere Enigma is so good at creating. As with the previous few CD's, Cretu's vocals are less than impressive, but they don't appear that often on this CD. Push the Limits, Traces, and Endless Quest are also very relaxing. You won't find anything of the caliber of Sadeness or Return to Innocence on this CD, but it's still a good CD nonetheless.

Just like previous Enigma albums "Screen Behind the Mirror" is a beautiful sound experience. It has influences from a bit of everything but the classic mysterious Enigma sound is still dominant on the album. Ambient, World Music and some more rock indfluented songs are all good, however I personally prefer the instrumental songs that creates a special feeling to the listener. It opens with "The Gate" that is a classic indrudution of what's coming, "Push the Limits" got electro sound and it isn't one of the best here. "Gravity of love" has a woman singing. It's a deep and magical song. "Smell Of Desire" is my favorite here. It's instrumental with flutes, guitars and slow drums. "Modern Crusaders" is rock influented and it's perhaps the roughest song Enimga has made, but even on their previous album we saw hints of Cretu's passion to express himself in words and he did that with a good result. This song isn't one of my favorites coming from the ambient Enigma but it's far from a bad song either. "Traces" is very beautiful. It's slow and it has got the sound of water dripping. The title track is odd, it has a beautiful sound and voices in the backround I don't understand. But it's mysterious which I like. "Endless Quest" is another flute song. Could have been influented from native americans. Wonderful. "Camera Obscura" is Cretu's own interpretation of the classic opera anthem, It will ring a bell when you hear it. A decent song, but not his own. "Between Mind and Soul" is a classic Enimga song with many influents, especially gregorian. The last song "Silence Must be heard" is a song with a female singer, it would have like to have it slower though. Overall this album is exellent, I didn't like all the songs but Enimgma delivers what the listeners want to hear from them. It's a album with many influensts that never will become repetitive or ordinary. "Screen Behind the Mirror" is the 4th Enimga album, and it's almsot just as good as the others. Exellent experience, don't miss your opportunity.