Elegy of Madness – Invisible World (Pride & Joy Music)
Thursday, 16th January 2020
Moving onto Pride & Joy Music for their fourth studio album Invisible World, Italian symphonic metal sextet Elegy of Madness appear confident that their commercial-oriented style is catching a buzz through international appeal. Featuring a mix of orchestration and electronic/modern twists against the dual female/male vocals and heavier, jumpy riffs, these eleven tracks are tight and crisp efforts that waste no time getting to the hooks, maintaining steady focus, and then getting out to the next idea at hand.
Layers of keyboard and orchestration aspects come into play, although in unique cello/orchestration combinations from Luca Basile, creating this haunting/driving see-saw atmosphere that can fill the aural landscape with anticipation as “Apnoea” illustrates early on. Electric/modern aspects against bright guitar flourishes signal diversity on the follow-up title track, the contrasts between Anja Irullo and Tony Tomasicchio vocally for clean/ distant spoken word to growl elements setting things up in a Within Temptation meets Lacuna Coil platform. Folk-like textures make “Kore” another standout, the speedier power riffs and thrash blasts again a contrast to the conventional airy verses, Anja using a semi-angelic angle against the gritty Tony delivery. The calmer clean guitar pulsates throughout the dance-like keyboards in “Fil Rouge”, the driving tempo and supplementary orchestration accents again making the song stand up and take notice, the vocal harmonies during the chorus pure pleasure. The exotic chanting and instrumental patterns give “Egodemon” standout qualities too, even as the heavier/charging guitars churn throughout the arrangement – while “Believe” has radio-friendly possibilities, an 80’s synth-pop aspect against another solid groove-laden rhythm and circular clean/guitar notes adding to the positive melodies.
Because of the tighter attention to shorter arrangements, Elegy of Madness have created an album that rolls along at a nice clip, floating a mixture of creative ideas that cover the open playing field that symphonic metal offers. Invisible World has the versatility to appeal to most followers of the genre, especially those who love the mix of Epica-like intensity against the peppy/pop-like qualities of Delain or Within Temptation.
