Elegeion come from Australia and have a long but intermittent history, considering their debut album dating back to 1997, two full lengths published respectively in 2001 and 2005 and some other minor releases, the last of which an ep in 2012. The founder Anthony Kwan has found new traveling companions in the vocalist Kindabah and in the drummer Rune and has finalized a long compositional path by recording the new album during the pandemic period; the sound offered is a very melodic but not cloying gothic doom, also because the canonical contrast between growl and female voice is less obvious than usual thanks to Kindabah’s timbre, very warm and far from operatic temptations. The five long songs are all equally rich in airy passages that appear much more frequent than the rare roughness or acceleration, and have the only small defect of protracting a bit ‘too much in some cases, which can not be said, however, the fulcrum of the work, Sombre Skies, despite its fourteen minutes of duration, being a real musical gem in which Kwan proves to be a versatile composer and melodic character: delicate acoustic arpeggios, exciting guitar solos accompany a vocal interpretation of great intensity offered by the talented Kindabah. Plight of the Heretic is not the record that overturns the rules of a subgenre that too often exhibits all its self-referentiality, but in the work of Elegeion is not difficult to find the spontaneity that makes all the difference between a pre-packaged product for the use and consumption of the audience and a genuine and engaging artistic expression.

2022 – Independent