LES TÉNÈBRES DU DEHORS

Elend is back with their second album. An album that smashed all genres and ripped up the ABC of music, as understood by the metal scene. Yes, this album was released as a no-costs-spared digi pack by Holy Records and I was one of them buying it. Layout and art wise, this album is a truly great album. Everything Holy Records released back in those days were great and it was without doubts the best record label at that time. They still are one of the most interesting record labels in the world.

But what comes out of the speakers almost defies belief. Elend has been described as a neo-folk band (and Elene has been compared to Arcana) by both Amazon and someone in the metal scene. This label has stucked and it is a totally wrong label.

The music that streams out of my speakers and has prompted my workmates to close their doors to our fellow corridor is probably neo-classical or even neo-gothic. Not as in goth metal, but as in gothic classical music. There is not even a faint hint of metal here and this music has nothing whatsoever in common with rock and jazz too. This is very much music in Richard Wagner's landscape.

The music is entirely based on acoustic instruments used in classical orchestras. On the top of that, you have a lot of female opera vocals and some screaming, tortured dissonant male vocals. The latter one creates a very mentally disturbed/twisted picture of the music. A tortured soul, no less. Besides of this dissonance, the music is quite beautiful. In particular when underlined by these female opera vocals.

When overcoming the shock, the outline of some really good music appears. There is no truly great music here. But the quality is good. I understand where Elend is going here. The tortured male vocals is too disturbing to really enjoy this album to it's full. Or maybe these vocals is the strength of this album. But I still rate this album as a good album and will keep my options open to get a more positive view on this album in the coming years and decades.

3 stars

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