Elffor - From the Throne of Hate
Northern Silence Productions
Medieval Black Metal
10 songs (60'23")
Release year: 2008
Northern Silence
Reviewed by Alex

From the Throne of Hate is next in line of Northern Silence reissues of the well-underground Spanish medieval black metal entity Elffor. Manned, in its majority, by one mysterious Eol, who writes and performs just about everything with exception of some guitar lines, Elffor continues its run of atmospheric, synth-saturated music which, in my opinion, is often in contradiction with the album/songs titles.

Just reading the name, From the Throne of Hate, one can imagine some of the grimmest rawest black metal. Instead, continuing on the wings of its previous effort Son of the Shades, Old presents a swaying, floating and often rousing atmosphere of dimly lit medieval castle full of wind chimes with hoof beats approaching in the distance and lightning cracking the sky above it. It is rather difficult to gather how extreme dislike can emanate from The Essence of Hate and Wicked Shadows. The latter, in my mind, invokes more the spirits of the fallen warriors from the wars past. Perhaps, that is the part of Elffor’s beauty and appeal as one’s imagination is allowed to run limitless while listening to these expansive soundscape-like pieces. If these compositions are merely sketches giving the overall description of some far-away land (or time), then they come off looking extremely vivid, but the pictures created are going to be up to each concrete individual. At times, the title is right on, as Grimmest Winternights could not have been more icily melodic, the story told from the inside of some northern hut with Aurora Borealis glimmering overhead.

To be more descriptive, My Hatefull End [Elffor spelling] and Upon the Barbarian Woods do showcase more aggressive approach, taking on the horror and violent atmosphere. In this light From the Throne of Hate does extend a lot more into the purer black metal territory than Son of the Shades. There is quite a bit more of guitar lines on the album, although they are almost entirely fuzzed out beyond any point of individual string picking recognition. Drums and vocals also make more frequent appearance, with My Hatefull End having the blasts rather audible, even if pushed way into background in the mix. The vocals of Eol come out for about one verse per track, to deliver the lyrical message, mostly in the form of the anguished raven cry or, as in the case of the bonus track Mysterious Dawn, they remind me of Silencer madness on an otherwise very epic sounding track.

If some find Elffor tedious, you have got to come in with the mindset that atmosphere here by far supersedes any “action”. To be fair, Eol constructs his compositions out of many kaleidoscopically changing parts and melodies, so no individual track gets stale, but the whole album needs a certain mood disposition to click. If you are a dedicated fan of Summoning, you probably already know of Elffor. If not, this is absolutely your cup of tea as even the horns on Rare Woods sound like the ones from South Away on Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame.

Killing Songs :
Old, Echoes of the Past, Grimmest Winternights, Wicked Shadows
Alex quoted 78 / 100
Other albums by Elffor that we have reviewed:
Elffor - Son of the Shades reviewed by Alex and quoted 73 / 100
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