Northern Silence Productions has been re-releasing, for the last little while, the work of solitary artist Eöl, founder and sole member of Elffor. Now it is the third of this series, originally released in 2004, From the Throne of Hate.
The black and white artwork /logo will most likely get you thinking that Elffor is a real raw, hateful type of Black Metal. In fact though, it's quite the opposite. Northern Silence has labeled this music as: Medieval Black Metal. The closest act that comes to mind is Summoning, minus the redundancy and, yes, if you add Black Metal elements of course. Eöl has solicited the help of two session musicians for this album: guitar player Jabo and drummer Ametsgaizto. This last one plays only on the last two (bonus) tracks. Expect to hear some great epic and symphonic Black Metal, when listening any of Elffor's work. I would go as far as saying that a cinematic edge is incorporated into his medieval songwriting. This 60 minutes plus opus is filled with varied elements and paces. You can hear: chains, winds, bells, screams, laughers, church organ, battle samplings and thunder colliding with distorted riffs, tremolo pickings, acoustic guitars, pounding percussions as well as orchestral keyboard parts. I found From the Throne of Hate darker than what I've heard previously,possibly due to the guitar work, and some more traditional Black Metal parts incorporated into the song structures. In any cases, all the pieces combine to create a pretty interesting album.
Some of the compositions that caught my attention are: "Old", "Grimmest Winternights" and "Mysterious Dawn" .
Track listing:
1 - Old
2 - Rare Woods
3 - My Hateful End
4 - Echoes Of the Past
5 - Upon the Barbarian Woods
6 - Grimmest Winternights
7 - The Essence of Hate
8 - Wicked Shadows
9 - Mysterious Dawn
10- Ancient Rebirth