EKHO — Among the Shadows of Erebus (review)

EKHO — Among the Shadows of Erebus album cover

Demo · 2009 · Melodic Black Metal

3.5/5 · 2010-12-31
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Ekho comes across, at first listen, as one of those bands which can be pretty difficult to put an exact label on. However now that I have given their demo, Among the Shadows of Erebus a couple of listens, I find myself inclined to tag them as a cross between black and folk metal for the most part, though there are times when Ambient would also come to mind (especially in the last track, Across). The primarily element here is definitely folk metal though.

I tag it as black, because of the demo’s raw production and the growled vocal style fits in with black more than death metal growls, yet there is something distinctly not-black metal about this and that is the actual music behind the raw production. This can be quite lively at times, hence the folk tag. The tracks Waters of Abyss and Silent Mourning certainly earns them status as folk metal, with the slow and melodic intro of Waters of Abyss which gets repeated later in the song standing out against the black metal vocals. The style shift works well. There are sections of atmospheric sections as well, which can fit pretty well in black metal bands due to that atmospheric nature of that style of metal music. Ekho though have tagged themselves as heavy metal/folk, but I stand by that black metal/folk is the most accurate you can put this band in. Or perhaps Ambient Black Folk Metal would be a more accurate way of putting it.

The demo is pretty well played from all angles, the guitar riffs are quite interesting and do not come across as stale. Last track Across throws a spanner in the works for being very much an ambient piece, which tells me that Ekho don’t feel that they need to take one style and stick with it, which is never a bad thing when a band knows how to do and still make their release sound like the effort of the same band and not a mess of ideas. I would go so far to say that Ekho have pulled off different ideas to almost perfection. It’s not without its faults, personally I don’t think that the lead guitar section in the title track is placed particularly well behind a vocal section, and there’s an energetic folksy section of Silent Mourning which would really have come across better with cleaner vocals, preferably chants.

Overall it’s pretty good, especially for a band only at the demo stage. I’ve noticed some complaints from people about the vocals but I don’t think they’re that bad, I’ve heard worse growlers in established bands. Yes, the vocals are probably the weak link in Ekho, but it’s very far from being unlistenable. Perhaps the biggest problem with the release is that it doesn’t even clock in at 20 minutes; that’s four tracks. Pretty acceptable length for a demo really, though personally I feel it’s over before I have time to properly get into it. I’d like to hear what this band can do if they get the opportunity to make a full-length album. Other than that it's really the poor production job that lets the demo down.