The cover motive shows up in grey nuances, the record’s title could stem from Immortal, a voice that captures me from the first second on, egregiously played and produced music… what can go wrong under these conditions? ELITE performed live on stage with similar sounding Kampfar and this is not astonishing, quality establishes itself!
At first the above praised voice by singer Bent hits me directly in impressing manner, the bard sounds very convincing and powerful. Thereby the guy can be understood best while presenting his lyrics partly in Norwegian, partly in English. The typical screeches and nagging dominates the vocal expression, but ELITE integrate some heroic chants in their composition to boost the alternation’s effect.
I appreciate that the musicians know about their strengths to perform fast-as-an-arrow Black Metal. On the other hand they do not hesitate to throttle speed in order to disperse another sentiment than pure aggression. Every now and then a groovy chord is fired off, contributing to a high recognition value. On the other hand the danger of monotony is banned with this tactics.
During Födt Til Vanvidd quite relaxed guitar tunes mingle with the aggressive vocals to attain an eminently intense effect of contrasts. Afterwards the track Vi Skyr Ingen Strid impresses in same style and proves anew that the band thought a lot about the value of alternating parts.
The atmosphere is never missed out and reaches its maximum during the broadest track Fra Askens Kilde. ELITE pull out all the stops concerning compository abilities. Different tempos pass the mike to each other in fluent changeovers.
At last the release finds its dignified conclusion with the calm, nearly dreamy finishing song Odal.
No matter if the group performs rapidly or in slightly reduced measure, it is really a pleasure to listen to the felicitous songs on We Own The Mountains. ELITE manage to convince totally with their intoxicating compositions!