This Ghent post hardcore crew are looking to blow the arse out of 2020 with their second album “Mere” . Four years after their debut “Allure” these guys have kept consistency with 7 tracks of raging yet melodic black metal tinged post hardcore.
That paragraph is probably enough of a review in itself but the album is worthy of a little more prose on my part. Particularly as the band have obviously put a lot of effort into its creation.
I have to start with the track “Elders” as it ticks every box for me and has forced its way to the forefront of this review with the gusto of a fireman’s hose- I shall gush forth. The track gently draws the listener in with bright almost Western guitars with just the right amount of distortion before dropping in a deep rolling bassy riff and tortured screamo vocals backed by an atmospheric black metal guitar line. Hey ho the gangs all here! At times it sounds like the drummer is all over the place before I realise that Stijn Witdouck (for that is his name) knows exactly what he is doing and is just forcing his band mates to change direction like a crazed game of blind man’s buff, in an electrical snowstorm. There are even some orange squeezing moments in there for all you Jaffa KVLTISTS!
Opener “Amos” (I wonder if it is about the old boy from Emmerdale farm?) is not to be leapfrogged to get to Elders though. It is a giant slab of groovy post hardcore that brings to mind Less Art and Converge and of course fellow Belgians Amenra with whom Elenora shared a split back in 2014
Eleanora are not just about the speed and dexterity. There is plenty of slow darkness amongst “Mere” as well.
The instrumental “Eb” is an eerie, doomy, atmospheric passage with guitars that almost sound like synths in their resonance which gently fades before the pummelling drums and riffs of “Korre” erupt. The twin guitars of Robin Broche’ and Christophe De Ridder fight for dominance over Jeroen De Coster’s low end but he holds them at bay. On lead vocal Mathieu Joyeaux sounds anything but! There are elements of epic black metal here and bits of shoegaze and even Viking seafaring too. This feel continues into “Samaria” with its tremolo picking backing a rousing post black metal style riff. Heart strings are plucked at by crystal clear leads which always puts shivers down my spine.
“Principles” that follows is dirty, bleak and crushing sludge. It’s lack of bludgeoning bass stops it short of the real heavyweights of the genre and there is still a little hope in the melody but it is in the same ballpark as Northern Irish folks 7.5 Tonnes of Beard . Like hitting a patch of grass whilst being dragged across concrete there is some relief.
The title track which ends the album is eight and half minutes of swirling, manic hardcore. The rhythms are almost Arabesque at times and the pace shift and switches like a snake stuck between burning torches. I am all over this like a non covid related rash.
Eleanora have combined many elements to make an undulating beast of an album that enthral and excited from beginning to end. Had it come out a week earlier it could well have ended up in my top 20.
(8.5/10 Matt Mason)
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