Elvenking

Two Tragedy Poets ...And A Caravan Of Weird Figures

Written by: TL on 08/12/2008 14:36:57

If any of you guys out there have been feeling the same growing sentiments that I do, about Flogging Molly beginning to seem a bit too institutionalized and formulaic to still feel completely honest, this review might have some goodies for you. The band is the Italian Elvenking and the cd is their fifth album "Two Tragedy Poets ...And A Caravan Of Weird" Figures.

If you gaze upon the band's myspace, you won't be surprised to read that their music is kind of celtic folk-rock/metal (which is quaint, considering that the guys are Italian) that seems to be mostly themed predictably around a fantasy setting with elves and hobbits and the likes. On "Two Tragedy Poets" the band have put down their power-metal axes of choice however, and gone on to record an entirely acoustic album, resulting in a sound that's dominated by acoustic guitars, violins and an array of traditional folk instruments as well. Effectively the sound is mellow but enjoyable, and you can hear that this is a band that's used to playing louder music in the veins of Sonata Arctica, especially from lead singer Damna's (yes they all have fantasy stage-names) delivery.

It's a pretty chilled out listen, and it works in the band's favour that they don't seem to take themselves all too seriously, covering Belinda Carlisle's classic "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" and generally letting a loose mood shine through the album. However, while there's nothing particularly annoying about listening to the album, there's nothing that really impresses you either. For the band's fans I'm sure hearing what they're like unplugged is rather interesting, as is the acoustic versions of two of the band's older songs, "The Winter Wake" and "The Wanderer", but otherwise, I have a hard time seeing who else is going to want to listen to "Two Tragedy Poets".

That may or may not be because I'm sitting way up here in Denmark, where folk-rock and power-metal is far from the favour of the masses, but in any case, strictly musically speaking, this is just alright, not really awesome in any kind of way. So whether or not you're going to want to pick this up is going to depend on how much you appreciate music of this particular style and genre.

Download: Not My Final Song, The Caravan Of Weird Figures, Heaven Is A Place On Earth
For The Fans Of: Flogging Molly and/or fantasy themed music
Listen: myspace.com/elvenking

Release Date 14.11.2008
AFM Records

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