My goodness, gracious me! Where the hell will it all end up? Iskandar Hasnawi and Renaud Tschirner, better known under the moniker ELEND, prove once more on their latest release Sunwar The Dead that normal genre boundaries do not count for them (anymore). After having finished the trilogy Officium Tenebrarum and a couple of years in silence, last year the duo came back with Winds Devouring Men, the beginning of a new epic much bigger and wider: the five chapter spanning Winds Cycle. As I already had the impression that ELEND wanted to blow away all bombast boundaries in the Neoclassic genre, they now even can top it and push their aimed goal (?) another step forward.
On Sunwar The Dead they really do not spare pains and efforts. More than 50 musicians have pressed themselves into the studio recording classic passages and choirs. Finally both masterminds could make a long-running wish come true and have seemingly exploited any single grain of possibilities!
And again classic, modern and electronic moments collide, are mixed to the maximum of perfection. Already the first song Chaomphalos sounds like an unholy synthesis of blackest CMI sounds and classic work in the veins of Bartok, Ligeti and Penderecki; a blend almost strange and very dark with just sporadically emerging melodies and many heavy breaks, extreme loud/quiet contrasts and as well a-rhythm as atonal splashes. While the opener is still quite tranquil, second track Ardour shows what sort of concentrated power can be in a full orchestra. The following title track picks up the thread and exponentiates its effect with a reinforced use of drums and reaches never known levels of heaviness in the band’s history. But they also incorporate more electronic elements than ever before: obscure noise and sound collages as well as Industrial stylistics essentially leave a mark on tracks such as The Hemlock Sea and Poliorketika. Just as little the singing can be categorized, that ranges from a mellifluous recitation voice to bombastic choirs, whispers and distorted screams, so also all tonal facets. Merely the lyrical content I cannot get an access to, since most of the parts are in Greek and French.
To come back to my question at the beginning: where will it all end up?
It already seemed that Winds Devouring Men was hardly to top in its intensity and musical class. But now ELEND continue with such a hauntingly beautiful gem that creates a continual flood of images in your mind while sinking into the music. I do not dare to imagine how the other 3 albums might sound and give well deserved 10 points, as I did on the last album too.
Outstanding, exceptional, unique!