酒酿丸子之八卦记忆碎片

Band - Elffor
Title - Son Of The Shades
Label - Self Released
Format - Unknown
Download Format: MP3/Quality: 192KBPS/44.1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Year - 2002
Genre - Atmospheric Black Metal/Pagan Folk
Country - Spain

TrackList:

01. Jaboren Basoa 5:13
02. Son Of The Shades 5:11
03. Of Wolves & Blood 6:23
04. Infernal Woods 6:11
05. Ravensong 4:19
06. The Nocturnal Moon 7:10
07. Long Winter Days 4:18
08. Unholy Gleam 5:47

It’s been four lengthy years since Elffor’s debut album ‘Into the Dark Forest.’ While the first album was in a way just a typical dark ambient record ‘Son of the Shades’ is so much more. Yes the music is indeed still dark ambient, but the compositions are so much more elaborate and beautiful sounding that this album completely mesmerizes me every time I listen to it. Once again the synth work is very dark and haunting and it has this enchanting wintry feeling to it that makes me feel as if I was standing alone in a snow covered forest late at night. Elffor greatly increases this feeling even further by adding lots of nature samples to the music, which upon closing your eyes one can picture themselves in some forlorn icy land. A feeling that’s hard to fully describe, but is simply flawless in its delivery.

Of course for some people dark ambient music has its limitations so fortunately Elffor gathered some friends to contribute with some additional instruments. This time around the record includes Basque traditional instruments such as the alboka, txalaparta, and tobera plus an oboe, guitars and drum machine were used. Through the use of these instruments the music becomes all the more elaborate and thus making Elffor one very distinctive musical entity. Another nice thing is the vocals, which alternate from grim black metal vocals to spoken word vocals to epic like choirs. Although the vocals are kept to a minimum, but the beautiful music more than makes up for it.

Overall ‘Son of the Shades’ is an extremely innovative piece of music that will easily capture the hearts of fans of medieval, folk, or pagan influenced music. Unfortunately though the album was self-released once again and as you might have guessed has already sold out. With any luck I hope a label will re-release this band’s music some day as such truly original music should not go unheard.

Review by JJM

Download:
http://vargumor-music.nnm.ru/elffor_son_of_the_shades_2002_1/