“I know what you’re thinking.”
Austria’s black metal scene is full of quality bands and a phenomenal variety of dark and brutal soundscapes, but in this reviewer’s humble opinion there is one band that has been head and shoulders above their contemporaries almost from the moment of their creation. Ellende (roughly translated from Middle High German as “banished” and since then repurposed in modern German as misery – “miserable”) has always been the idea of a Lukas Gosch – lg – who has proven himself to be a remarkable talent even in a sea of solo black metal musicians who write and record all their own material, and whose output so far rivals anyone who would compare themselves to him. Active since 2011 and has been releasing new releases since the debut EP in 2012. Retreat in the inner worldThe band still consists exclusively of lg for recording – guitars, drums, piano, violin, whatever – but has since also developed into a fully fledged live act with a rotating cast of established names from the surrounding scene. A melting pot of melancholic and despairing DSBM, tastefully blended with delicate orchestral elements (please note the intentional absence of the word “symphonic” here), angry, biting blast beats and a strong sense of atmosphere and scale, EllendeThe releases of the last decade have cemented their position as one of the more creative, yet accessible black metal bands of recent times, and fans often clamor for new material. With the latest release DeathbringerInstead, we get a completely re-recorded – and partially reinterpreted – version of the band’s second album from 2016, Deathbringer. Was it really necessary? No, probably not. Is it still worth your attention? Yes, absolutely.
Ellende have never shied away from revising and updating older material. Shoots not only contained new recordings of “World Night“ And “Between summer and autumn” – originally released in 2014 – but also a sequel to the title track, somewhat predictably titled “Shoots II“The leap in quality in production that benefited this series of songs was only achieved over the entire Deathbringerand shows the true strength of an artist who is not afraid to explore the boundaries of previous media that may not have presented his art in the way he intended.
Beginning with a delicate and sensitive acoustic introduction, “At the deathbed of time“, and followed by the live fan favorite “Ballad on Death” (please don’t ask me for all the English translations; there are only a limited number of hours in a day), Deathbringer obviously follows the path of its predecessor closely, and at this point in the record, dear listener, you may be thinking, “I’ve heard all this before, where’s the new stuff?” and honestly I would be hard-pressed to disagree with you so early in our endeavour. While the elegant and shiny new production of these tracks and lgThe remarkable progress he has made as a versatile and emotive singer since 2016 is certainly the focus, but the devil is definitely in the details. Small corrected errors here, a layer of additional synths and/or strings there, a tighter and thicker drum production everywhere, all add up to a more complete and enriching experience for the listener and, by extension, the artist himself – I highly doubt that Ellende are the kind of band that would be worth re-recording the entire album for if they didn’t feel that these songs had more to offer.
About halfway through the album, this goal becomes a little clearer: “Shards“, once a nearly fifteen-minute epic in the middle of the record, was split into two neat halves, helpfully titled “Shards Part I“ And “Shards Part II “(I’m sure you can figure out that particular translation from the clues in context.) At first glance, this may seem like a superficial difference, especially when consuming this album as a whole, but it serves to segment the album into a more easily digestible experience and, somewhat counterintuitively, it helps both halves of this once complete track stand on their own and become stronger as a result. This sense of renewed purpose and power permeates the entire album, and at no point does any of these re-recorded songs falter or fail in comparison to their predecessors.
It is obvious that lg did not feel that 2016 Deathbringer have captured these pieces in the required splendour, and while it may seem like an unexpected blow so far into their career to hear them again in their entirety, I admire the singular determination and desire to ensure that these songs, this work of art in its entirety, are not outshone by the shine of the ‘new’ material. Your tolerance and patience as a listener depends entirely on your own taste and desire for something entirely new, but personally I stand firmly behind any artist who is willing to admit that they didn’t quite capture their vision right the first time around, and who has made the required effort to bring this album screaming (quite literally) into the modern era. If you’re already a fan of EllendeThis LP may be a bit of a disappointment due to the lack of new material. But for newcomers and older fans who give the band some well-deserved space, there is a lot of new stuff to discover here.
“Let me breathe freedom.”
7/10
Deathbringer will be released on 30 Augustth above AOP records and can be pre-ordered here.
