Band:	Eldamar
Album:	The Force Of The Ancient Land
Style:	Ambient black metal, Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	February 15, 2016
Guest review by:	Metren

01. Spirit Of The North
02. Winter Night
03. Travel In Woods
04. From Life To Spirit
05. Valkyrjur Ancient One
06. The Border Of Eldamar
07. Galaðwen The Eldar
08. New Beginning

The Force Of The Ancient Land, an album by Mathias Hemmingby's one-man project Eldamar, is a work that simultaneously demonstrates some of the best and worst elements that the atmospheric black metal genre has to offer. It is an ambitious debut that falls short of achieving its aim of being a masterpiece, but does so in a way that is still admirable and enjoyable.

The first thing that will surely impress listeners about The Force Of The Ancient Land is the quality of the production; apart from the synth-created female vocals that occasionally become tedious, the album sounds incredible. Even in an age when home-produced high-quality music has become a common thing, Eldamar's debut ranks high amongst the very best albums when it comes to production.

The Force Of The Ancient Land is less impressive when it comes to songwriting, however. While the production is great and the overall feeling of the music is rather epic and wonderfully otherworldly, the musical ideas themselves - while good - are stretched out to infinity and beyond and listening to the entire album from beginning to end becomes something of a chore at about 45 minutes in. There simply isn't enough going on musically to justify the more than 70-minute length of The Force Of The Ancient Land. If the album were just 50 minutes long, it would work much better. As it is, a potentially great listening experience has been forcefully made so long that it almost becomes something you'd play in the background while busy with other activities rather than a work of art that you really get drawn into.

Fans of Caladan Brood and similar bands will no doubt find Eldamar's debut album to be one of the best releases of 2016, and with its epic soundscape, great production, and many lovely melodies, that is not surprising. Aiming for greatness is always admirable and Hemmingby certainly has the potential to hit the target with his future releases as Eldamar, even if this first album is just plain good and nothing more.