Llvme – Yia De Nuesu (2012)

With a very lush and elaborate sound, today we have Llvme and their second full-length release “Yia De Nuesu”. Mixing elements from Doom, Folk, and Black/Death Metal, this band has a very rich and entertaining sound that will blow you away with excellent melancholic passages and sheer brutality moments.

Opening with the majestic “1188-1230” track, this release immediately establishes a melancholic atmosphere full of aggression and emotions. The female vocals and violins in this track are excellent and nicely contrast the heavy elements of the track. “Helmantica” brings forth a more aggressive stance from the band and some very Dimmu Borgir-esque keyboards. The riffing is very well crafted and the drums are stellar. “Vettonia” has that same Folk Metal vibe that bands like Eluveitie exploit to no end (the bagpipes), but it somewhat feels different with some nice stop-and-go moments and the direct Amorphis ‘rip-off’ section at the end of the track.

With a very weird feeling of a documentary about South Africa during the world cup 2 years ago, we have “Vaqueirada’l Baitse”. This song feels a bit odd in this place, but it is very interesting indeed. The Doom influences are finally present on the weeping guitars of “Conceyu”. This track has an overall slower and more melancholic atmosphere, making it our favorite song of the release. For those looking into some Folk/Doom Metal (very interesting mix we might add), “Purtiellu De La Llïaltá” is a fine example of such combination of genres. If we only didn’t get so annoyed by the bagpipes, we would totally love this song.

The super atmospheric “Llibación Nu Alborecer” is another of the highlights of this release thanks to the combination of excellent string instruments and very powerful and efficient guitar riffing. The same can be said about the more straight forward “Mirobriga”, another fine example of how you can mix aggressive sections with atmospheric and Folk elements without drowning anything out in the mix. The closer “Fayeu De Sueños” feels a bit over the top, and it shows that many of the atmospheric elements have been mixed a bit too high in some of the tracks of this release.

If you like atmospheric music with Black and Doom Metal elements, this is the release for you. Llvme does an excellent job in crafting both powerful and melodic songs. We are also nicely surprised on how well the band mixes the Folk elements, we would have appreciated this more if we weren’t so jaded with bands that over abuse the bagpipes until the point of inducing a headache, something which Llvme is far from. We can’t wait to hear what the band composes next, and hopefully by that time we will be more prepared to appreciate them and their very rich sound.

Release: March 26th, 2012

Country: Spain