Edfell - A Dark Summer of Light
Leda Spiridon
To deal with French Black Metal needs from anyone to trace its history back to the beginning of the 90's, when Les Légions Noires (LLN) spreads its wings and reveled names as AMAKA HAHINA, BELKÈTRE, MOËVÖT, MÜTIILATION, TORGEIST, VLAD TEPES and many others who stormed the scene with nasty and remarkable albums that would take the French Black Metal to the same level of the Norwegian Inner Circle. But as the underground ideology of LLN was to remain things as they were, almost all of these names disappeared (except for MÜTIILATION) and some other names, as GORGON (that still exists and wasn't related with LLN), but left some heirs. And LEDA SPIRIDON is one of them, as "Edfell - A Dark Summer of Light" states.
The band mixes the traditional Black Metal sound of French scene (that has that harsh and funereal feeling, but with some darkened and hypnotic melodies) with Dark Ambient Music, creating something that is hypnotic and aggressive, yet harsh and oppressive. But it's not as easy to swallow as it seems, and imagine this form of music expressed in only two songs (both lasting more than 15 minutes). The production is an inheritance of LLN days: harsh and crude, as could be expected. But unlike those days, this album was recorded in a way that, even with the raw feeling being there, all of the musical content can be understood without great efforts from the listeners.
Musically, the problem is that the band prefers to express their work with two extreme long songs, mixing the brutal and aggressive classic Black Metal format (focused on vocals, guitars, bass guitar and drums) with long Dark Ambient parts (filled with effects and noises), what can be too much for puritan Black Metal fans. But this extreme Metal suit called "Eldfell - A Dark Summer of Light" divided on part I and part II has its charm, indeed.
It's hard to be assimilated, but "Eldfell - A Dark Summer of Light" isn't a bad release at all. And LEDA SPIRIDON shows that, even having to evolve a bit more, is a good name from French Black Metal scene.
7 / 10
Good
Songwriting
Musicianship
Memorability
Production
"Edfell - A Dark Summer of Light" Track-listing:
1. Eldfell - A Dark Summer of Light - Part I
2. Eldfell - A Dark Summer of Light - Part II
Leda Spiridon Lineup:
Unknown
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