Eluvian - The Doom of Edendalk (ep)

Requested submission.

Band: Eluvian

Album:  The Doom of Edendalk (ep)

Release date: December 15, 2019

Record label: self released

Genre: Melodic Death Metal

From: Sula, Norway

Eluvian is a 4 piece that consists of Mads Smebakk – Guitar and keys, Markus Olsen – Vocals and lyrics, Espen Mork – Bass, Ludvig Pedersen – Drums. The Doom of Edendalk is the bands second offering, having released the full length album Prophetic Flame in 2018.

This 4 song ep is the start of a concept work in the fantasy genre that will be continued on the bands next album.

The band has great vocals, going from a raspy heavy metal and old school thrash vocal to full out growling that still holds a clear melody, demonstrating that this is singing, not shouting. I’m also impressed by the emotional growling on the start of the last song of the ep.

There are also a few ambitious vocal arrangements where there are several vocal parts at the same time in a kind of call and response type arrangement.

The bass is often not to prominent in the mix, but where it is focused on in the mix, like the intro on the third song, it has some cool, mood setting riffing. I like the use of orchestral kettledrums (don’t know if it’s real drums or samples) that contribute to the fantasy movie feeling. The drummer is quite skilled, and does some cool things on the double pedals. I would have wished to have the drums a bit more prominent in the mix to hear his parts clearer.

The keyboards melodies on this ep also contribute heavily to the epic feel of the songs, and are one of the high points for me by this band. I want also to mention the great atmospheric start on the ep, where the keyboards follow into the first riff, unlike some bands where the keyboard intro melodies never again are heard in the song.

The guitarwork on this ep is well composed, often trading melodies with the keyboards or another guitar. All these instruments being played by the same musician makes this extra special, and shows that a lot of time has gone into the composition and arrangements. This makes this ep really interesting to listen to over and over again, and I hope they are able to recruit more live members to perform these parts instead of having to rely on playback tracks live.

The vocals and the guitarwork reminds me a lot of Amon Amarth, and the production in general makes one think of Gothenburg melodic death. I would also compare the band with Suidakra, Rebellion and Excelsis.

I like the tempo changes as well as the changes in mood, both between clean parts and heavy parts, but also between dark and dreadful or powerful and epic. The band goes between parts that are more extreme metal and parts that are closer to melodic metal or the Fenno-Scandinavian power metal like 90s Hammerfall and Stratovarius. On it’s most melodic it also reminds of Rhapsody, however they remember to keep their feet on the ground and don’t try to be over the top epic. Some of Eluvians more symphonic parts, with dark growls and constant double pedal also reminds me of newer Dimmu Borgir.

This review is a requested submission, that is, I liked the music so much that I asked the band to submit their songs for review to me. So yes, I like this album a lot. It has the heaviness of extreme metal, lot of great melodies and solos, a cool concept, tempo changes and great compositions and arrangements, all the stuff I personally look for when I look for metal to listen to.

I hope this ep will be released in physical format, as this is definitively something I want in my cd rack.

follow the band on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Eluvianband/
buy the ep on bandcamp: https://eluvian.bandcamp.com/album/the-doom-of-edendalk