What we have on the plate today is the
debut album “Eleine” from Swedish female fronted symphonic metal band Eleine.
Yes, you heard right, female fronted
symphonic metal. Is this something that generally tickle my funny bone? To be
honest, hell no. I generally stay away from this kind of music since it is
always over polished and generally boring as heck. Not for me.
The reason I decided to take a listen is
because these guys and gal comes from the same part of Sweden I used to live
in. This got them through the door. But the reason they got invited to be
dinner? Eleine actually has an interesting sound. This is some sinister
sounding shit, down right spooky at times. What made me interested is the
overall sound of the album. As I stated before generally this kind of music
tends to be sterile and so over produced it removes any sense of emotion and
danger from the music. But not on this one, the production is actually a bit
raw. And as always when I say this, I mean that as a great compliment. Don't
get me wrong this is no “Under the funeral moon” but the production has bit and meat and bite to
it . Mmmmm meat, I do love me some meat. The guitars are heavy and crunchy, I
really dig the guitar sound. For a band like this the guitars are exceptionally heavy and in the front. The drums have a nice sound to them, maybe a bit to low
in the mix. Would have been nice with a bit more snare to make it even heavier.
The bass is not that heavy in the mix but it gets some time to shine just check
out the song Destiny.
When the first song of the album “Land
Beyond Sanity” kicked in I though: this sounds more like a symphonic black
metal band. I guess this is what makes Eleine different from the millions of
similar acts. They take their inspiration from the more sinister. They sound
like a metal band should. Filled with emotion and peril. Not playing it safe
like in my humble opinion bands of this genre always do.
This brings us to the start of the show,
vocalist Eleine. I do not want to take anything away from any of the musicians
in the band since they all do a great job. But to be fair the band is called
Eleine.
Eleine has a gorgeous voice, sad and
melancholic. I like that the voice it is not totally in front of the rest of
the music. It makes the voice a part of the sum. Not the total sum of the
album. I think Eleine's vocals fits the songs perfectly everything is filled
with emotion and feeling.
I think this is the albums strong suite and
the bands strong suite. Everything just feels like it fits together, even the
keyboard (yeah I know, I can't believe I just wrote that).
Eleine has a very dark and somber sound
that keeps on building and building. I am highly impressed with this album as I
have never really been interested in this kind of music at all before.
But with this one the guys and gal in
Eleine has cooked up something really note worthy.
So yeah, do you like female fronted symphonic metal make
sure to check out Eleine. And if you are not a fan of this kind of music. I
think you will be surprised, Eleine's debut album is something even non-fans of
the genera will surly enjoy.
Sweden`s Wilhelm Lindh, "Portuguese by adoption," guitar player, composer and owner of the Doom / Death Metal band The Gardnerz, reviews here in HeavyHardMetalmania.net. Careful and professional analysis to the music and albums with suggestions of what there is to see and hear ... not to be missed. "The wisdom is found in the extremes, all extreme Metal here!".
"Seductive, Style and Monumental". These are the words used by the band to describe their self-titled album. The album will be released on the 18th April 2015 via Cardiac Records, from Ystad, in collaboration with Universal.
