(Northern Silence Productions) Total Time: 59:40
ELFFOR is a Spanish medieval/ambient with black metal influences band formed in 1995. Eol who was the founder of ELLFOR agreed to the offer of Northern Silence Productions to reissue all four ELLFOR’s albums in chronological order during 2007-2009. The result of this agreement is the reissue of “Son Of The Shades” album in 2008.
So “Son Of The Shades” is a remastered/rerecorded album with new artwork & layout and two exclusive bonus tracks composed back in 2002 (“Hidden In The Nebular Landscapes” and “Endless Dark Flames”). ELFFOR seem to have put more emphasis on the atmosphere by making lengthy songs that grasp the listener throughout the duration and entrance them into a fantasy world. The bagpipes, the use of a traditional Basque percussion instrument called txalaparta, the samples taken like the cawing of ravens, the galloping horse and the sound of swords, spears from a great battle raises the overall interest of this album. Most of the compositions are keyboard driven and the guitar’s tremolos pick playing and drums’ assaults come to sit side by side so that all together create the dark and desperate atmosphere that dominates throughout the album. Eol singing with raspy and clean also choir vocals describes misanthropic landscapes and darkness (the typical black metal influences I mentioned before).
ELFFOR is a very interesting band which can easily be compared with Summoning. Maybe some ideas might be taken from Summoning but that’s not the point I’d like to insist on, cause “Son Of The Shades” has its own aura.
To sum up all these in few words:
Pros:
-Great dark atmosphere
-Memorable melodies
-Variety of images and sounds
- Careful production
Cons:
-The album doesn’t have a guitar solo whatsoever
-Some singing dissonances that Eol should have avoid
-The similarity with Summoning that can make a listener to put him off
This album is an awesome experience however and as with their previous releases, I can’t really pinpoint anything wrong with their music. In normal cases the grade would be 4 out of 6 but, cause this is a reissue, there is no grade here...
