LES TÉNÈBRES DU DEHORS

The second album by Elend is essentially a somewhat more polished take on the first. The same general approach applies here - melancholy neoclassical darkwave music with the "classical" part of that genre's mix of influences cranked up to 11, with the occasional outbreak of sinister roars upstaging the clean vocals and trying to add a sort of spooky, scary ambience to proceedings. And like the previous album, it just doesn't quite come together for me, though comes closer to doing so than the debut did. Yes, it's quite well produced, with the keyboards emulating an orchestra really quite effectively, and there's some pretty moments, but it's also deeply unmemorable.

You could almost forgive it were it going for a more ambient approach, but that seems rather incompatible with the death growls that litter the album. Worse, whenever the growling starts the effect is not foreboding but simply a little comical, rather undermining the intended atmosphere of the compositions. The end result is an album where I am rather more sure that Elend know what they are doing than the somewhat muddled debut - but where I am even more convinced that I'm not especially interested in what they are doing.