Sunwar the Dead

**** I don't do a lot of music reviews, but since this was partly inspiration for a short story, I'm including it. ****

Artist: Elend – Sunwar the Dead

Website: http://www.elend-music.org/news.php

Description: Music CD

Review: I am a big fan of Elend, owning all of their albums, but I think this is my favorite. Heck, "Ares in their Eyes", coupled with reading this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/070904285X/, inspired me to write a short little story. One may not think of this type of music as inspiring, given its crushing intensity and huge wall of sound. But I guess it can be.

I have this classified as metal, and the band has a slot in the Encylopaedia Metallum, to be sure. But yet its classical-oriented nature is in full focus: Fifty artists participated on this album, including the Ensemble Orphique. Perhaps considered "neo-classical", and probably garbage by a few stuffy old men in ivory towers, to me it is the essence of classical music:

Perhaps the best album of them all, though Leçons de Ténèbres ranks high as well.

Emotion, power, drama, layers, and layers, and layers. The lead vocalist has a dark, pleading, almost decaying edge to his voice, that further adds to the impression of impending doom. You can feel the surf heaving as you approach it, can smell the stench of decay and a nameless dread; fears unfounded yet dangerously real, as they edge closer, and closer to you. Your only recourse is to enter the sea... and drown.

If you have never heard Elend, I would start with Sunwar. Lock the house, turn off the phone, put the cat in another room, and crank up your speakers for an hour of bliss; enjoy listening to a masterpiece that defies the categorization of music into so-called "genres." Dive into the swirling depths of this music, become a ship on the Hemlock sea, and let Ares burn in your eyes as you float along.

Absolutely amazing. I'm just sad it took me so long to review this.