Efflore has reached a milestone.
Active in Taiwan since 2018, the band led by Henry Yang (vocals/keyboards) and now featuring Ash Huang (bass), LUKA (drums), Hu Yu Chen (gong), Xhen (guitar), and Boss (guitar) is finally releasing its debut album, Elegies of the Island.
The album kicks off at a brisk pace with the menacing Mo-Shin-Ah, an opening track as dark as it is explosive, where majestic sections vie with far more aggressive passages, especially when vocals take on a cavernous quality. Also worth noting are the rather choppy riffing and a passage that’s as heavy as can be, before the album shifts to the virulent Siu Niu, which immediately follows suit and continues this aggressive momentum, in turn alternating between screams and biting melodies. The break gives us a chance to catch our breath before bracing for the fierce final, then Tigress Witch plunges us into an atmosphere of dread before striking with a thick rhythm section paired with mysterious keyboards, creating an addictive contrast that the band handles with ease. The musicians follow up with Liu’s Haunted House, which could easily be mistaken for a track from a horror movie as it’s that eerie and ethereal thanks to an incredible mix where the bass contributes just as much to the heaviness as it does to the surrounding darkness, then traditional Asian tones welcome us to The Ouija Chair, a reinterpretation of the track of the same name released two years earlier. The track remains intense, at times becoming strangely as grandiose as it is heavy, all while easily captivating us even during that unexpected solo before the final crescendo and then Spirits of the Green Lake takes over with a fairly direct approach, still relying on the orchestrations to deliver heady flavors. The change of scenery is complete with the eerie introduction to Wraith in the Old Well, a track that’s ethereal yet unsettling on first listen, but which ultimately stands out easily with its unique rhythm that shifts from mysticism to pure energy, featuring constant backing vocals. The band finally closes out the album with the calm and ritualistic Guimén kai tán zhòu, a fairly short composition where traditional sounds and guttural incantations blend together to bring the album to a close – yet leave you wanting to play it all over again.
Efflore is one of those projects that strikes us Westerners as highly original because of its unusual blend of Asian sounds and Black Metal, and Elegies of the Island has an intoxicating aura that I’ve rarely encountered in other projects.
95/100