Battlelore - Evernight
I admit that when I received Battlelore's latest release I felt obscure, I was in a condition of distress because I didn't have the best impressions from this band because back in 2003 I had listened to their second album, "Sword's Song", and I didn't quite enjoy it to tell the truth. Filled not with the greatest expectations I put the album in the cd player to realise that, oddly, as the songs were flowing the one after the other I was enjoying "Evernight" a lot, even from the first composition! A very pleasant surprise if I may say!
Well, Battlelore hail from Finland and during February, 2007 managed to return with their fourth full-length attempt through Napalm Records and all I can say is that the band worked really hard to accomplish a very good album. The very first impression on an album is being formed by the cover artwork and then the title and both cover and title pace beautifully together in this occassion! The artwork lies in shades of grey and shows a team of people in boats sailing down a lake amidst mountains and forests towards the unknown, probably soon to reach the point of "Evernight". As for the music it is hard for me to label it since it incorporates epic, folk-oriented, atmospheric and metal elements, one thing is for sure, the overall outcome is expressive, intense and emotional, making you care not about the categorization of Battlelore's music.
The band keeps an expressive balance between the vocals, the guitars, the keyboards and the rhythm section (which holds the compositions really well and lends the ideal groove) and all together create the ideal atmosphere. The guitar riffing is powerful and in some more melodic passages lie hidden some more folk-oriented ideas that blend beautifully with the charismatic female vocals and the keyboard chants, at times though the riffing steps behind and gives its place to some more acoustic passages that offer their own fragile beauty into Battlelore's compositions. The ethereal female vocals are just dreamy, enchanting, a bittersweet atmosphere of their own, imprisoning the listener under a violet veil of overflowing sadness, whereas the grunting male vocals are very good, could be better though, but they fit the music really well, lending a sharper edge to the compositions. Some polyphonic passages couldn't be missing since some passages ask for it so as the sound will be more complete and along with the floating keyboard melodies unleashing their either more symphonic or more fragile dreams the soundscape seems perfect.
The songs that managed to tear me apart and then synthesize me all over again from the start were the elegiac, emotional and intense "House Of Heroes", the epic and surrounding sadness of "Longing Horizon" and the outstanding "Beneath The Waves" with the dramatic epilogue of both the song and the album that leaves you asphyxiating in the depth of the sea in search for your dreams..
Concluding, "Evernight" is a beautiful piece of atmospheric metal generally speaking, an album that will accompany you in a world of fantasy and bittersweet beauty for a long time
"Buy your own dreams, beneath the waves..."
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 8
Production: 8
copas from http://www.metalstorm.net/pub/review.php?review_id=3930
Tracklist:
01. House Of Heroes
02. Ocean's Elysium
03. Summon The Wolves
04. We Are The Legions
05. Into The New World
06. Longing Horizon
07. Mask Of Flies
08. The Cloak And The Dagger
09. Beneath The Waves
10. Doom And Oblivion [bonus] [limited edition version]
11. The Tale Of The Downfall [bonus] [limited edition version]
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