Ellende – Todbringerin (Review)

This is the fifth album from Ellende, a solo black metal band from Austria.

I’ve heard of Ellende for a while, but this is my first encounter with the band. I have to say, I wish I’d paid more attention earlier, as this is sterling stuff. Todbringerin contains 50 minutes of expressive black metal.

Apparently this is a rerecorded reinterpretation of Ellende’s 2016 album Todbringer, but as I haven’t heard the original I can’t comment on how it compares.

Ellende’s sound is a mix of the classic, depressive, and post-black metal styles, all of which are combined into an atmospheric black metal framework that’s wonderfully affecting. It’s tied together with compelling songwriting and additional instruments such as piano and strings. Different facets of the music come to the fore at different points across different songs, making for an album that’s a pleasure to journey through. Todbringerin is a record full of emotion and atmospheric depth.

The music is accomplished and lusciously presented. I like how satisfying the album feels; the compositions are of sufficiently high quality that every song feels complete in its own right, while still effectively feeding into each other and flowing as a whole.

Todbringerin is rich in melody and atmospheric presence. The songs combine their influences into blackened soundscapes of beauty, melancholy, and venomous bite. Of the latter, the sharp screams contribute much to this, and are a very enjoyable component of the material. The rest of the music itself concentrates on creating mood-focused structures that craft detailed tapestries for the listener to explore. Aggressive elements are scattered around, but the aggression is only one tool of many that the artist behind Ellende skilfully employs. I’ll mention the vocals again too, as there are some gorgeously delivered atmospheric cleans deployed at key times.

Todbringerin is a strong record with much to offer fans of the style. If you enjoyed the original record then this I would expect this should be considered an essential listen. However, it’s so damn good, that fans of a range of different bands should really spend some time with this – Alcest, Agalloch, Anomalie, Der Weg einer Freiheit, Fen, Harakiri for the Sky, Heretoir, Waldgeflüster, etc. .