Man, this is a trip. As if the name Battle Elf wasn’t already enough to get your blood pumping for some ancient woodland action, the kind that even Legolas would avoid, then the dark atmospheres of this album 10 will push it way over the edge.
There’s definitely some kind of rune-work going on here at the least, and for a band whose name sounds like a shitty doom act who couldn’t quite make it up to levelling up to dwarf metal, this is some seriously dark shit. So dark that those green glades of Lothlorien feel cast into Sauron’s eye then spewed up as some bastardised intense version of itself. Enough of the Lord of the Rings references though, did I say this was some dark shit?
Taking their cue from the kraut masters, Battle Elf forge a sound influenced by Can and early Amon Duul and turn it into some bleak, creeping nightmare. This is some real dark psychedelic shit and probably best taken without any enhancements. Hell, that ‘Hotel Jerome’ is enough to make you want to run away and hide from the taunting, foreboding, creaking sounds.
It’s utterly intoxicating eventually though, and you find yourself submerged in the hypnotic mire of ‘Stops Pretty Places’. It’s throbbing bass unified in grace with the repetition of the drums. A moment of clarity in a midst of improvised experimentation. I’ve no idea what Battle Elf look like, and quite frankly am happy to just imagine my own version. Shrouded shadows, frightening sounds. Unearthly and unreal, like the music. A completely encapsulating album of proper heavy psych.
