Eleine - Dancing In Hell review
Band: | Eleine |
Album: | Dancing In Hell |
Style: | Symphonic metal |
Release date: | November 27, 2020 |
A review by: | Dream Taster |
01. Enemies
02. Dancing In Hell
03. Ava Of Death
04. Crawl From The Ashes
05. As I Breathe
06. Memoriam
07. Where Your Rotting Corpse Lie (W.Y.R.C.L.)
08. All Shall Burn
09. Die From Within
10. The World We Knew
11. Die From Within [symphonic version]
Eleine as in Madeleine Liljestam, which is the name of the striking front-woman who also models for a living. Alongside Rikard Ekberg, she is the main creative force. They are the composers and singers. Like other bands in the symphonic metal realm, Madeleine is the angelic voice, Rikard is the devilish one. They may look good but they are no pretenders. They very well know what they are doing. If Amaranthe stopped toying with subpar watered-down pop melodies, they could pretend to be on par with Eleine. In other words, this is superb symphonic metal with a dash of dark metal, not unlike a dark Nightwish or Epica.
There are some definite gothic elements to their style. Growls, folk passages, fast breaks, that is how some of the darkness creeps in. Just watch some of their videos and you will see how they incorporate gothic themes into their visuals. There is a thrash component to their sound. Or at least there is some definite musical intensity materialized through the intense drumming of Jesper Sunnhagen and the bass mastery of Anton Helgesson. Typically, even before vocals kick in, the music calls for headbanging. And that is how this band stands out. They do manage to counterbalance this intensity with the right amount of melodic symphonic stuff. Not only that, they manage to shine in both extremes, which is a beautiful thing. Beware that this can also induce confusion upon first listen if you don't know what to expect.
Their previous effort Until The End was slightly more geared towards symphonic metal a la Epica while Dancing In Hell overall features harsher, more poignant songs. Don't get me wrong, both albums are equally powerful. That being said, Dancing In Hell is edgier, more aggressive. The emphasis is no longer on harmonized melodies, atmospheric keys, choirs and piano. Now we are down to bare-bone business. It is incisive. A more direct route to awesomeness has been charted as is evident from the opening track "Enemies". The pace is fast and furious. The atmosphere is dark and the music is aggressive and still slightly progressive.
At the end of the day, Madeleine is a talented singer. In addition, Eleine is quite the band. They are creative despite operating within a saturated field. They probably do not stand out enough because they do transcend a few genres. Regardless, if you like your symphonic metal to veer off the beaten path, and lead to a darker path with heavy influences, this is the band for you.
Rating breakdown
Performance: | 8 |
Songwriting: | 8 |
Originality: | 8 |
Production: | 8 |
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Written on 05.01.2021 by
Bringing you reviews of quality music and interesting questions such as: "A picture is worth a thousand words. How many words is a song worth?" I have only got so much patience and skills, you do the math. |
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