Ellorsith:"1959"

Caligari Records is releasing a hypnotizing album by a Scottish Band called Ellorsith. A concept album of sorts based upon the Dyatlov Pass Incident, where nine hikers led by Igor Dyatlov mysteriously died in the Ural Mountains of Russia. There death were said to be caused by "a compelling natural force" which  is not only the title of a song on this album,  but could also be an apt description of  Ellorsith's sound. Theories surrounding the incident have ranged from paranormal activity to secret weapons testing. Ellorsith is surrounded by similar mystery as they have very little internet prescene and their album was released on a limited cassette run of only a hundred copies pressed. This ep's lo-fi coldness recreates the atmosphere of the story this band is trying to tell. Mixes black metal with nasty death metal. The vocals are a subterranean gurgle.

"Marasmus" launches off rather abruptly. This is a more straight forward death metal approach, though dark enough until it's hard to tell at times where the death metal begins and the black metal elements end. Most of the time when something is described as blackened, the other elements aside from the black metal are dominate and the black metal is a blast beat here and there some dissonant guitar of vocals that take on a more anguished shriek rather than a guttural bellow.Here they are blended in a more unique and subtle manner. Though upon the first listen to this band it would be hard to think of them capable of subtleties.The mournful guitar melodies that come toward the song's final moments are unexpected.

"Lichrye" the proceedings pick up pace. The vocals take on an almost sung bellow that reminds me of Entombed.The songs winds around into angular chords creating an odd dissonance as the song winds to an end. This dissonance is returned to on the closer"Compelling Natural Force". The bursts of black metal here seem convulsive, as they occur with no warning. The songs slows when not in the blasting seizures. The drumming is more nuance in the cymbal accents. This might be the most well constructed song on the album. At nine minutes it's also the longest, though by black metal standards these days that's just the intro. Ellorsith is not about letting a minute go to waste, if for no other reason than they don't want to give you that much breathing room. Midway into the song when the languishing chords cry out into the night, it is one of the most melodic elements they touch on. Falling in the weird chasm between doom and depressive black metal. Any reluctance felt initially by the first impression of  raw claustrophobic nature of the raw production. If forgotten by the end. Even the rough haunted house theatrics , where it seems they are going with the Yeti theory, doesn't cast too cheesy a shadow on the albums close and is  forgivable after "Compelling Natural Force" was so beautifully constructed.

I'll give these guys at 9.5, The murky production at the onset isn't my thing , but in the end these guys prove that they have more than just sheer rawness to work with. This is going to be one of the best underground metal releases of the year.