ELLENDE is a Post Black Metal band based out of Austria. I wasn't able to gather much more information on the band, so we will have to let the music do the talking. The album has nine songs, and "Nur" is first; a short instrumental mood-setter. The mood is both gentle and tense, with somber leanings, and leaves you wondering where it might go. Seguing into "Wahrheit Teil I," this song is firm, thick, and aggressive. Still somber in scope, the animated bass notes are a nice addition. The clean, atmospheric passage hints at strong songwriting, and how the band can turn it up and down at will. It makes an aggressive charge to completion.

"Wahrheit Teil II" has a slow and somber entrance. What follows is both firmer and thicker, but not overly aggressive. The vocal screams carry a distinct pain with them, like a festering wound that throbs forever. Thick bass notes once again accompany the riffs, and they are as meaty as a turkey leg. The title track was the first song released ahead of the album. It has a gentle, but sad piano led opening. Next, a blast of frigid air blows through and it freezes everything it touches. There is so much emotion here, it boils over, and sweeps you up and carries you away. Both the clean and harsh vocals carry the same amount of weight.

"Ubertritt" also begins with tense and somber tones, and the artist shows great restraint holding back the sound until the point that it burns too hot in his hands. The clean vocal passages sound like something out of a dream, and the screams turn the dream to a nightmare in the waking state. "Ode ans Licht" is a short, four-minute song that leaves some of the aggression and despondence behind, and replaces it with positive sounds. The screaming vocals rage, but they can't extinguish the warm rays of light in the room. "Zeitenwende Teil I" is another song with a weighted emotional burden. Somber strings arrive with more thick bass guitar, followed by a blast of fire levels everything.

"Zeitenwende Teil II" comes back to some of the naked aggression of earlier songs, but the emotional impact remains its strongest feature. Harsh vocal screams rain down like a deluge, soaking you to the bone, and lead guitar breaks weep with pain. "Reise" is the final song, and the pain still lingers. You carry it with you everywhere you go. The harsh vocal screams serve as a conduit for the subject to scream out his burden, and it's massive, colossal even. Rounding the halfway mark, the pain becomes too much, and his tortured pleas and screams will forever echo in your ears.

This is black metal that is fully alive with a bevy of emotions. Not just aggression and rage, although they are there, but also sadness, regret, despair, and even hope at times. The artists uses them at his will, interchanging them when the mood fits, and he makes these transitions seamlessly in his music. This emotionally charged massive bolt of lightning and energy is something that any fan of the genre simply must listen to.