Saille – Eldritch (2014)

Hailing from Belgium, today we have one of the best Symphonic Black Metal bands in the planet, delivering their 3rd full-length release titled “Eldritch”. Greatly improving over time, this band delivers nine intense tracks of melodic brilliance that only a handful of bands are capable of. With other bands being stuck in using over the top orchestrations as gimmicks, Saille focuses on the underlying brutality of their music and throws in melodic and atmospheric passages to round things up.

Skipping the typical intro, Saille quickly delivers the first blow of intensity with the blistering “Emerald”. The band perfectly blends traditional melodic BM riffs with creepy atmospheric elements and intense vocals. As we move into “Walpurgis”, this album is already reminding us of the crushing “Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia” by Dimmu Borgir, as Saille is really on top of their game firing in all cylinders and crafting some intense music.

The masterfully crafted “The Great God Pan” is one of the best songs we have heard in quite a while, thanks to its tempo changes and cool spoken sections in said passages. The music greatly changes from blast beats and intense shrieks to melodic passages that are quite hypnotic and shift the music’s direction magically. Kevin De Leener drumming is epic through the album, and particularly in “Aklo”, a playfully intense song with excellent clean vocal atmospheric passages thrown amidst the punishing BM onslaughts.

If you like the more atmospheric side of things, “Cold War” provides a nice change of pace for a few moments before fully kicking into gear. Another personal favorite in this release is the demoralizing “Eater of Worlds” and its punishing vocal performance courtesy of Dennie Grondelaers and Jonathan Vanderwal. There are some interesting Pagan/Folk Metal sounding elements in this track that show that the band is not stuck on just a formula to craft music. The diabolical sounding “Dagon” is another track that we are sure people are going to love thanks to its craftiness lush atmospheric elements.

After closing with the solemn “Carcosa”, we are completely blown away by how good is this release. The band has greatly improved and matured since their already pretty good release “Ritu”, and they show that the can give any of the big name Symphonic Black Metal bands a run for their money. If you like Symphonic Black Metal that does not over abuse orchestrations and its symphonic elements, look no further and get a copy of “Eldritch”.

Label: Code666 Records

Release: November 10th, 2014

Genre: Symphonic Black Metal

Country: Belgium