Valkyrian Music

Valfeanor
The Eerie Constellation
Released 22nd February 2013
Atmospheric Black Metal
Released via Cursed Records

The Eerie Constellation is the third album from the Austrian atmospheric black metal band Valfeanor. It is the follow up to their 2009 album ‘Noreia’. The band was formed back in 2002 under the name Mortar which was then changed to Valfeanor in 2005.

After the soothing keyboard intro Interlude we get to the first real track on here; Lethe Jenseits which offers a delicate balance of harsh black metal vocals, melodic guitar riffs and steady drumming intertwined with the aforementioned atmospheric keyboards. It’s non-identical twin Lethe Diesseits is the longer, more complex of the two and sees emphasis shift towards the guitars and the vocals take a turn towards the old Mayhem-style howling. Interestingly enough, the melodic keyboards do make a comeback towards the latter half of the song which helps to retain that atmospheric feel.

It’s a somewhat unusual mix of black metal sub-genres, the best way I can describe Valfeanor’s sound is somewhere between old Mayhem and mid-career Emperor with hints of Enochian Crescent. As the raw black metal vocals pierce their way through each song, they are counterbalanced by melodic guitars and the atmospheric keyboards. The title track is a good example of this, the agonizing howling is ever present and even with the more refined instruments such as the guitars it still leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. Another noteworthy track is Ephemeral, which features a short, melodic, semi-acoustic guitar part in the first half of the song.

Overall, The Eerie Constellation is true to its namesake. It has its strengths, notably the atmosphere created by the guitars and keyboards but there’s something about the vocals that makes you feel unsettled, which is sadly the main drawback of this album. When it comes to black metal, raw and atmospheric is a rarely a good combination.

3/5

Iza Raittila

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This entry was posted on 11th March 2013 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Review with tags Black Metal, Eerie Constellation, Emperor, Mayhem. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.