ELEGEION - Plight Of The Heretic
June 20, 2022, 2 years ago
(Independent)
Written over a decade, recorded in Melbourne from November 2020 to February 2021, this two piece (also includes a few guest musicians) returns after 17 years since the last album. As described, the music is gothic doom black metal, see the monochromatic album artwork.
Opening 12 minute title track includes slow plodding riffs, spoken words, drum beat briefly brings up the pace a tad as the female voice, cello, is in contrast to the somber music. Feels like a funeral hymn. Cello and vocal starts "Dust" as the guitar fades in, maintains the mood tone, plus some deathly growls. At 14 minutes, I enjoyed how "Sombre Skies" progresses, soft at the start, moves into the arrangement like Opeth balancing between the darker male vocal with the melodic guitar leads, delicate female with acoustic parts. The burst of black metal riffing (vocal) doesn't match the drum tempo for "The Blazing Tempest", with a melodic slowed break mid-way, the evil voice returning the arrangement is contrasting energies, but seems to gel. "The Disease (Beware the Ides of March)" closes the 50 minutes with the bleak riffing completing this artistic vision.
Not music I'd visit often but very well composed, and among the melancholy shifting soundscapes Kindabah's voice (and acoustic guitars), are lovely and brings light into the darkness.
