Elimi

Asylum

Eerie Art Records 2010

Swedish black metal with a blackness of soul and psychology permeating deep beneath its blasting surface.  The album is divided into six chapters, the first of which is Withered With Time.  A fierce and unstoppable gust of black metal that brings to mind a nice middle ground of Marduk and Arckanum with its hateful melodic bent that is bereft of light.  About half way through the track the mood and atmosphere of the song shifts to a more epic feel that evokes comparisons to a much less orchestral Emperor.  One element I really enjoy is the very discernable bass guitar within the onslaught of riffs and drums.  An instant transition into Chapter Two: Don't Speak is made and the only noticeable difference at first is the sharp notes squeaking in the mire of string work.  However the song's complexity begins to unfold, dramatic bass segments, blasting riffs with neck-snapping breaks, and deliberately drifting passages.  Demented vocals create an atmosphere of uncontrolled psychosis within the song.  Chapter Four:  Revenge simmers with a deep-rooted malice, enhanced by the rabid vocals and slithering riffage.  The increasing tempo ratchets up the tension within the song, until it crests into a sawing rhythm and then settles back into is bubbling anger, before once again exploding into characteristic blasting Swedish black metal.   Chapter Six:  Alive, Dead closes out the album with a bouncing alternation between mid-tempo traditional black metal and yearning black melodies which feels a little flat compared to the rest of the album.  Elimi's sophomore album is an inward journey of black metal insanity, a psychotic break with the real world and into a realm of harsh black metal grimness accented by strokes of atmospheric and musical textures which enhance and flesh out the darkness that is Asylum.