Review in SSMT

Having completed the trilogy of scary, religious based music, Elend has since taken a little time to ask the friends of Satan to take up vocal positions elsewhere and have instead created a much more soothing sound with their latest release, Winds Devouring Men. Elend's sense of neo- classical darkwave composition remains fully intact, drifting a bit more towards the terrority of Black Tape for a Blue Girl. The somber tenor voice is backed by lilting female singing and everyone who ventures near a microphone sounds just a bit down on their spiritual luck. Winds Devouring Men is by no means a cheerful record, despite the lack of hoarse screaming and shrill demonic ranting. Moments on this album drift into deconstructed territory, but for the most part the darkwave framework remains intact.

Winds Devouring Men is an impressive album that should well serve artsy black metal fans who desire classical music for the demented. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the men from Elend were given a full scale orchestra and an unlimited budget, but unfortunately the small Prophecy Productions label wouldn't have resources such as that. However, given the confines of synthesized orchestration and the power of their imaginations, Winds Devouring Men is a powerful, seductive CD that follows up previous Elend releases with impressive results.

reviewed by John Chedsey

Review date: 02/2004