Don’t you know Eldprov?
Neither do I. Formed in 2019 in Sweden, the band consisting of Andreas Zoergel (vocals, Nattramn), Jonas Backe (guitar/bass, Toxic Crypt, Septic Grave…) and Simon Henell (drums, Reaper’s Mark, Toxic Crypt) announces the release of Rift, their debut album, through Grind to Death Records.
Affliction‘s massive and frantic sound is the first to crush us with its mix of Old School Death Metal and sharp leads, before welcoming vindictive screams. The sound knows how to offer very catchy tones while remaining extremely effective, between bewitching tappings and majestic choirs, then the band continues with Vex, a composition which cheerfully picks from energetic Thrash Metal. The track offers us a continuous aggressiveness while letting leads escape from this solid rhythmic before Until Nightfall comes to flood us with airy Black Metal influences. The contrast between the raw violence and the soaring touches is impressive, and it will let martial parts hammer us before the band goes back to softer harmonics just like on Silhouettes and its haunting melodies soaked by Thrash roots. The effective mixing continues without any difficulty, but the track is short and it will leave us on the long Third Crow and its macabre tones. The introduction will suddenly ignite to put us in front of an as impressive as heady wall of sounds, letting catchy patterns fight under oppressive screams before choirs come to soften the atmosphere to make it explode again. The Folk influenced final drives us to We, The Unclean, a devastating composition which lets the band mix incredibly effective riffs with accessible vocal parts and livelier leads, then Hunt takes over to close the album in those cold melodic sounds on which it’s impossible not to nod from start to finish.
Eldprov has many roots, and yet the band has a very marked identity. Whether some riffs are very melodious and catchy, the others mercilessly crush us, making Rift a very diversified and cadenced album.
90/100
