Tracks:
- Chaomphalos
- Ardour
- Sunwar The Dead
- Ares In Their Eyes
- The Hemlock Sea
- La terre n'aime pas le sang
- A Song Of Ashes
- Laceration
- Poliorketika
- Blood and Grey Skies Entwined
- Threnos
European Import | For their 10th band anniversary, ELEND return with an album much more dominated by HEAVENLY VOICES than their previous one. Whereas Winds… was a slow, relatively calm album, Sunwar the Dead is a furious, dark and fast effort where the 2 composers combine their talent for large and dense orchestration with the most extreme experiments of XXth century’s serious music, thus drawing inspiration on techniques invented by K. Penderecki (sonorism), K. Stockhausen and I. Xenakis (serious electronic music), P. Henry (musique concrète), P. Eötvös (impressionism and percussive tones work). Sunwar the Dead sees the core trio recording with a complete classical ensemble and female choir of 50 musicians for the first time, taking the much admired production of “WDM” to a further accomplishment and bringing the sound of the ensemble to a new dimension in terms of liveliness, clarity, complexity and power.
A review from gryphonmetal.ch Elend...After 11 years since they formed the dark-ambient Austro-French band decide to begin an exciting travel into the orchestral obscurity (as they use to do) with a cycle of five albums started with the previous "Winds Devouring Men" and now in evolution with this new " Sunwar the Dead". For all those who don't know this band... I begin this review with an important message. Elend plays dark-ambient ...their music is made by an orchestra arrangements and the sound is an involving travel into an obscure path that seems nearer to horror soundtracks than to dark songs. Their songs are composed with a camera music approach, but with a black mark in the deep of the soul....... This album gets 11 dark chapter; Some of them are very brutal and full of obscure visions... In this album Elend are accompanied by more than 50 classically trained musicians and singers! An opera that I try to describe in few words.... Iskandar Hasnawi e Renaud Tschirner have made one of the most brutal album in their carrier ...A brutality made without drums and guitars (...only by nocturnal and obscure visions made by an orchestral arrangement)! The lyrics of this album contain like the previous one , the long epic prose poem begun on "Winds" combining personal themes with references to ancient Greek authors. The album is dominated by heavenly voices but also a strong presence of the male vocal dominates the scene! The album is a travel that seems neverending and every song gets its charm...an old charm that seems to bring us into another time.....It's impossible not to be amazing listening to "Threnos " that is one of the most beautiful "chapter" of this opera..."where the darkness meets the heaven".... In my opinion, sometimes the male vocals are tedious and seems to contrast the charm of the music...Instead I give a very positive opinion about chorus. Not every song are full of inspiration...but in this contest, it's very hard to give a single valuation...an on the whole I can only say that this album ...could be the soundtrack of your dreams...or nightmares(if you prefer)....An opera to be listened in silence as if we were into a theatre... - Salvo "Lovedeath" Russo