I am a simple man. When I see names and album art that suggests a band has an interest in old European history, I — after a sad necessity of background checking — take a look. And when a band, like Eldingar do on their second album Lysistrata, says they’re drawing on black metal, folk, and melodeath, I hit play. This is a conceptual sweet spot for me, and the themes of dissolution of armed forces and power-lust intrigued me as an interesting new angle for this sound.
Unfortunately the more you have hope for a thing, the more it can disappoint you.
The simplest way I can put this is that I like Eldingar‘s riffs and sound and dislike their approach to song and album writing. Most of Lysistrata is mid-paced blackened thrash metal with long folk interludes, and the songs usually pull me on board with a somber intensity in sound. I am particularly impressed with how audible Giannis Dardas‘ bass is for the genre, and how it pops into the melody on “Lysistrata” and “Ode”. The problem is everything goes on too long. I would like the instrumental opener “Dryope” if it were two minutes but struggle with it at four. And I have similar things to say about every track bar the instrumental interlude “Into Cosmos”.
The problem amplifies through lengthy build ups that go nowhere. There’s a lot of black/folk acts with epic song lengths — the classic Moonsorrow for one — that are beloved for it because they provide epic climaxes. Eldingar does not. Eldingar are a band that could benefit from adopting some folk gang vocals, or a powerful stomping groove, or big guitar solo outros, or anything that serves a catchy climax. Instead they mainly stick with the same style of riff they use throughout. Despite this, Eldingar start to provide a good climax on “Ode” but — guess what — it goes on too long.
Reviewers often go on about editing, the reason being that too many bands who can play good music produce boring albums because they let songs meander aimlessly and don’t cut their weaker material. Eldingar have fallen prey to that with Lysistrata. They don’t have the material for a good eighty minute album, and the arrangements only make that more glaring. A more condensed approach would have made it a great deal easier to like and recommend Lysistrata. But as it stands, I can only hope that next time Eldingar edit more and stop dissolving their own force.
