ELFFOR – Frostbitten Pain CD review

ELFFOR – Frostbitten Pain CD
Self Released

Northern Silence has been reissuing ELFFOR’s early material for a while now, so seeing this as being a self release was a surprise. ELFFOR is the side project of Basque keyboardist Eol who also does time in the bands NUMEN and SUFFERING DOWN. Basically Eol handles the keyboards, vocals and some drum programming while bringing in session musicians to handle everything else. What we have here is brand new material from Eol and if you’re into medieval influenced symphonic black metal than this should be an extreme treat for you. Before I go on it needs to be emphasized that you must remove what prejudices you have towards symphonic black metal prior to an attempt at listening and enjoying this. What most people think of when confronted with modern day symphonic black metal is a bunch of guys (and a girl who plays the keyboards) all decked out for Halloween playing essentially gothic hard rock with some blast beats thrown in. This ain’t it but if you’re a fan of the Norwegian band TARTAROS then this will excite you.

What Eol does musically is bring forth a landscape for the listener to imagine while the music flows through the senses. His use of samples and effects coupled with the various synthesizer sounds gives you the feeling of being in a natural amphitheater out in the forest with Eol as conductor. From that position you can just close your eyes and allow the atmospheric sounds overwhelm you. Frostbitten Pain contains five long songs which makes it more of an experience than a listen. “A Cold Funeral Breeze” has a majestic quality as if you were accompanying a fallen warrior on board the ship to their final resting place. “Instinct Enslavement” opens with some depressive black metal guitar strumming slowly turning towards tremolo picked blasts matching the drumming. The sadness put forth by Eol once his keyboard playing comes in is overwhelmingly haunting even when the pace quickens. Midway through it all slows down to an ambient mood to let one catch up but then the early structure repeats. Female choir vocals give it the added longing.

“Ancestral Spirit” is the longest cut on here and the most gut wrenching. Eol’s death-like scream breaks out from an almost Gregorian keyboard driven melody. As the song progresses his vocals are like that of a tormented spirit. At times they’re harsh whispers and at other times painful shrieks. Best part is when they come in when you least expect it. “Chaos Moon” is close to BURZUM but with vocals that are cries of agony instead of shrieks of anger. The song flows as if one were being carried along on the wind, never ending. By the time the final composition “Icewind” emanates from the speakers you can consider yourself drained but ready for the final deathblow. “Icewind” is very majestic sounding that creates a feeling of standing at the mouth of an ice chasm. The song dwarfs the listener with echoing keyboards and timpani cadence drumming until the acoustic guitar slowly strums the song to a close with Eol’s spoken voice the last we hear before the cold puts you to rest. Excellent!

Elffor.com