Review Summary: The lovechild of Cryptopsy and middle eastern music.
Elvenefris is seemingly contradictory-a combination of relentless tinny snares, middle eastern inspired guitar riffs and tremolos, Lord Worm-esque gutturals and moments of blissful melody. Yes, melody. The start contrast is both gorgeous and innovative, equally as captivating as it is bewildering. Even more bewildering are the tracks where its so smoothly incorporated, such as the first track "The Land Where Sympathy Is Air", where after relentless power their is a sudden calm around 2 minutes in. The contrast makes for probably one of the most unique albums within all of brutal death metal.
The instruments often play at entirely different paces yet somehow still feel in sync. The best example is off of (my personal favorite) "Bringer Of Elvenefris Flame", where the riffing near the end is uppity and invigorating and relatively calm and peaceful, yet the snares are blasting at a pace that is blistering. Which brings me to one of the albums most prominent features-the drumming. It can really be viewed from two different perspectives-on one hand, it sounds almost like someone beating a coffee can with a stick. On the other hand, it brings a sharpness, a sort of edge to the album that makes you get lost in wonder at how a mere mortal being is capable of such rapid fire snares. On rare occasions the drumming can be gratingly annoying, such as during slower more mellow sections where the drums still tend to take the cake, which, during those small number of times, feels utterly wrong. However, aside from these times, it truly brings so much of the fire and intensity that this album contains, making for incredible climaxes.
The other two portions of the atmosphere and identity of the album are not quite as present, but still it is hard to ignore some of the beautiful spoken word passages through the album which provide a stark contrast with the brutal, nearly ugly growls. Then of course, providing the backbone to this album are the guitar riffs, which although also less present,create some truly intriguing middle eastern riffs that brand the mark of countries like Egypt into their sound almost as well as bands like Nile do.
In spite of all this, the albums second biggest asset (next to the drumming) does also tend to be it's flaw. It is the melody. Some of it does seem forced or ill fitted, especially when the snares still try stealing the limelight from these parts. Thankfully this isn't too often, and the beauty proves to be a bigger asset than issue, such as the final crescendo of a track, " Walking In the Garden of Ma'at".
