With a name that sounds like a Welsh marriage proposal, Llvme are actually from the Leonese region of Spainand their name is the regional word for fire. Purveyors of the finest Leonese folk doom, Llvme perform entirely in their regional dialect; which in some respect makes them Spain’s equivalent of The Wurzels. Unlike the Wurzels though, Llvme mix their folk music with a scrumptious mixture of doom and blackened death. With some strange arrangements and choice of instruments on occasion, the last thing you could ever accuse Llvme of is being boring! Right? Well, yes…mostly.
Doom, folk and paganism are no strangers to each other, as I’m sure you well know; however things become infinitely more challenging when the lyrics are delivered not only in a foreign language, but in a very specific regional dialect, thus giving your average listener very little chance of grasping the overall meaning behind the music. With that aside though, there is a lot to enjoy about this album which is a clear improvement on the patchy 2010 debut ‘Fogiera de Suenos’. The sound is deep and rich with an excellent mix, and the vocals of Eric Montejo are powerful and aggressive with a style that is comparable to Rotting Christ’s Sakis Tolis. Tracks such as ‘Helmántica’ with its driving pace and unusual mixture of styles, and ‘Conceyu’ with its My Dying Bride melodic influence are a joy to listen to; but the album as a whole is let down by the elements that break up the flow and at times just flat out ruin the atmosphere for the listener. ‘Vaqueirada’l Baitse’ has the sound of a traditional folk song delivered with a grating female vocal that left me begging for the end of the track after a mere 30 seconds of listening. Equally disappointing is ‘Xota Chaconeada’, a rallying call to battle I assume from the sound of it, which amounts to a good two minutes of badly tuned bagpipe solo. Tracks like this are enough to not only bring down the overall feel of an album, but also enough to bring on minor bouts of depression in any mentally fragile metaller giving the album a listen without prior warning that there may be bagpipes around the corner.
Remove these offending items from the equation, the remainder of ‘Yia De Nuesu’ makes for a very good album. Influences are wide and varied, with elements of My Dying Bride, Moonspell and Primordial, mixing with those of Skyclad, Rotting Christ and Negura Bunget. There are times where the arrangement ascends to an epic film score level, yet never losing touch with its firmly grounded pagan roots. It manages to transcend the language barrier on so many occasions, as the vocals are spat out with rasping venom and you find yourself utterly drawn into the spirit of it all, completely consumed by the emotion and by the moment, only to find yourself come crashing back into reality by means of a misplaced honking bagpipe solo. As much of an improvement as this is over its predecessor, Llvme have not yet released their full potential, and will not until they cut out the superfluous elements from their works. If they go ahead and do just that, they will truly be a force to be reckoned with. Until that time comes, you’ll just have to skip past the duff tracks.
(7/10, Lee Kimber)
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