Review Summary: Magic, Repurposed.
Elderwind have a certain unique quality about them. A cursory listen will reveal little more than your standard, well executed, but mostly generic atmospheric black metal sound. Give them just a bit more attention though, and their manner of producing that atmosphere, and the imagery it conveys, will prove anything but commonplace. It’s not hard to find bands that create a convincing enough mood, but coming across one with a genuinely transportive quality is rare. Elderwind exemplify the latter.
The light and airy keyboard touches and soft, soothing melodies that made their debut, “The Magic of Nature”, so enthralling are still present, and are as entrancing as ever. However, these elements are noticeably backgrounded on “Fires”, and pushed farther down in the mix, which may upset some people that were big fans of Maigc. “The Colder The Night” saw an even greater focus on atmosphere but, as a result, fell somewhat flat and just wasn’t a very engaging record. It’s obvious that something of a course correction was sought, and Fires is quite a dramatic one, mostly for the better.
Here, the riffs take center stage, and these are Elderwind’s best guitar compositions to date. They manage to crank up the intensity without losing their spacious, fluid melody. It’s a combination that’s not very common and even less often executed as well as it is here. Not to be outdone, the bass finds a near-perfect middleground of remaining present while assisting the core guitar passages and doesn’t overlap or distract from them. The drums are exciting, and rather uniquely performed, creating patterns and tossing out tinges of nuance that you aren’t expecting from atmo bm, especially when it’s this aggressive on its face.
What really pulls everything together is the consistency in theme and mood. The striking cover art and song titles aren’t just for show; they express a coherent motif and storyline that the music itself, and Elderwind’s most intense and compelling vocal performance to date, manifests with clarity and sincerity. Sparks fly, walls of flame erupt, entire forests are engulfed and destroyed. And yet, life finds a way.
If there is a complaint to be had here, it’s that the fiery aggression is almost overdone, to the point where the placid and serene keyboard and acoustic breaks so prevalent before have been mostly sidelined in favor of maintaining momentum. This works for the most part, but the tracks can start to blend together after a few listens, and it becomes difficult to tell them apart in a way that does more harm than good to the overall experience. In seeking to create a solid and enjoyable listen throughout, they sacrifice some character of the individual tracks; the course may have been overcorrected.
It’s an issue that could be sorted out fairly easily, and it seems that all the elements needed to do so are in place. Between the superb songwriting of Magic, the strong atmosphere of Night, and the stunning and downright epic riffs of Fires, Elderwind’s next album has the potential to be nothing short of a masterpiece. For now, crank the volume and burn it all down because Elderwind is no longer in danger of becoming boring; they have successfully reinvigorated their sound to an immensely satisfying degree.
