Band : Elvira Madigan

Album title : Regent Sie – Shedevils Of Demonlore – Of Blood, Crosses & Biblewars

Label : Black Lodge

Distributor : Bertus

Release date : 11/04/2008 (world; Sweden= 20/03)

Release : CD

Did you know, Elvira Madigan was an actual person living & dying in the 19 th century, whose illicit love affair with a Swedish luitenant has been the subject of a very popular Swedish '60s movie? Born in Denmark, she was a tightrope dancer and trick riders, who travelled around Scandinavia with her father's travelling circus. It's following a performance in Sweden that she and her luitenant (a count) fell in desperate love. Desperate, because the man was already tied to a wife and two children. They wrote love latters to each other for over a year, and then fled to Denmark to live out the last month of their life. With their last money, they picked up a picnic basket and travelled to a little Danish island where, after their meal, the luitenant first shot his beloved and then himself. The story bares resemblance to the even more famous Mayerling affair (in which an Austrian prince was involved). Of course, the movie that was made on thàt topic (a Hollywood production) was somewhat more internationally popular, but even today the grave at the same island they died on is visited by tourists and lovers from all over the world.

Okay, so Elvira Madigan is also the one-man band of Sweden-born Marcus Hammerström , more commenly known as Marcus H. Madigan . As it's now been over 3 years since the last EM album Angelis Demonae – Wiccan Aftermath – Bloodstained Covers For Sirens And Sinners , which was released in early January 2005 but thanks to an overzealous person (yours truly) already saw its review posted on December 19 th , 2004...I feel compelled to repeat the history-of-the-band (as said review is no longer available for your scrutiny). So...I thought I'd do a creative copy-paste job, adding pertinent details where necessary. Here goes...

This is the one-man project of one Markus H. Madigan . In a former life, he was part of Andalucia , a band that never broke through because of the Grunge break-out in the early Nineties. Disillusioned by that, and thanks to the fact that he'd purchased a studio in the last days of his former band, he decided to fiddle around with some music which didn't really fall under the Death monicker he used to walk around under. The project becomes somewhat of a reality when he records his first demo Varsel in 1998 (which is still intented to be released as the as yet unreleased self-titled debut), and starts messing around designing cover artwork for a couple of imaginary albums. Playing around that way, he decides to take things more seriously, and since he's got material enough, he starts the recordings for the first official album Blackarts , and starts up the website on which he posts some of the songs. Weary with the thought of having all this fine music under his belt, he then sends his material out to all relevant labels. However, even before getting any news back, he decides it's better to hold the reigns, founding his own label Northlore , on which the album is released in 2000 (with bonus tracks). But even before the album's release, Markus had started recordings for the follow-up Witches – Salem (1692 Vs 2001) (which gets released on Northlore in 2001). Late 2002 recordings for third album Angelis Demonae began (a collection of covers in Blackened version including, among others, Tori Amos ' "Ieee" , and recorded at a moment in time when Marcus felt creatively empty after having put his whole in the first two recording sessions – still,the album is simply fantastic, and got a top rating from yours truly), eventually finished & mixed in January 2003. Then, Black Lodge licences Witches..." and as a result of that Markus is enabled to completely rebuild his studio. March of 2003 already saw the re-release (in re-mixed, re-mastered, & re-packaged version) of Blackarts . In April of the same year, pre-production for the next album begins (a pre-production which would take him the whole year of 2004). January 21 st of 2005 saw the release of Angelis Demonae , its release postponed to allow the promotion for Blackarts to take its fullest effect. (for a more detailed story told by the man himself, surf to elviramadigan.com/bio)

So, why did it take so long for THIS album to be released, since so much time has elapsed since the previous album hit the streets, and since Marcus had already done pre-production for this album during most of the year 2004? To be perfectly honest, that were questions which went through my mind too at first, but I lost interest completely after giving the album its first listening session! I mean, the quality on offer is of such dazzling hight, it makes one forget ones troubles all together. The album being conceptual in nature, it tells a story which even now, after having given the disc at least six or seven spins in the cd-player, I have been unable to unravel. Part of that is due to the incredible vocal soundscape, which is often layered in a schizophrenic way of speaking, Marcus bending his voice in all possible manners you might imagine (from deep Death growls to shrieked or screamed Blackened ones, over rather clean, and with a story-telling mode which can be grave, a Blackened whisper, or more "normal"...and then he manages to find yet other ways to express his lyrics)...and getting away with it all admirably perfect! The 73:31 album has a total of 15 tracks, 4 of which carry the same main title of "Demonaria" , which are àll sub-divided in 3 parts even if they dó flow into each other seemlessly. The same can, to a certain extend, also be said for the rest of the album. Because even if you're getting changing moods of intensity and underlaying feelings of threat (or dread), the album is listened to as a continued saga from start to finish (even if there àre a few short silences between some of the tracks). With only two instrumental tracks (the 1:42 "Solstice & Sleepwalking" – orchestrated keyboards emulating the sound of cello followed by some mandolin and flute and more strings – which is situated some 15 minutes into the saga following the two first rather aggressive opening songs, and the 1:51 album closer "Regency" , which is again a calmer passage with piano) you can imagine quite a bit of lyrics available to scrutinize and unravel. In spite of the album's length, the listener is therefore drawn from track to track unknonwingly (unless he's watching the counter on the cd-player) in a feeble attempt to put everything that's being growled, shrieked, whispered, sang, or told, to memory (hey, even I am no hero when decoding those Blackened vocals...I too prefer a lyrics sheet, you know). With the music changing constantly in intensities (more energetic passages with still quite some orchestrated flavouring and sharp electric guitars are alternated against moments purely "Classical" infatuation, which can also be calmer with a simple and almost Ambient piano, or more bombastic with full orchestral feel) your attention span is really drawn to extremes, and you'll soon (well, soon...it does take nearly 74 minutes for the album to be finished, remember?) find yourself reaching for that "play" button to listen to the album's story all over again!

In short, I dó hope the retail version wíll have a lyrics sheet, because that'll make things a lot easier on the listener, who'll then be able to get submerged into the musical landscape of the album. I hear there's to be a digibook version of the album, so I guess at least thére you will indééd find the lyrics, eh? In good tradition Marcus has posted a couple of songs off the new album at myspace.com/elviramadigan (also a song off each of the last two albums) for you to enjoy. If you hadn't heard about Elvira Madigan yet, but àre interested in Symphonical Black Metal, then by all means check this out, because EM is at the top in the genre! Not surprisingly, you'll find Regent Sie nominated into my personal "Best Albums Of 2008"-list!

98/100

Tony.