Slight misunderstanding. To my western eyes, LLVME looks like it should be the name of an all-girl pop group with the collective vocabulary of the average ten year old and the fashion sense of any 3rd rate hooker; isn’t that “TXT SPK” for love me, or something, like? No, my mistake. It is, apparently, Leonese for Fire, so I’ll let them off.
On paper, this lot sound very interesting and actually the music does back things up fairly well. The album comes in with a militant drum roll and loud, proud bagpipes blasting out in a rather traditional manner. ‘Llumeiru De Fueu’ has some beautiful streaks of colour in the mix and the keyboards contrast nicely against the deathly growls and mournful tone that plays out in the middle. As the violins come sweeping in there is a real Celtic vibe to things that carries through into ‘L’Allumamientu Del Fueu I’ and I do like the use of traditional sounds here as they really add something quite unique to the sound.
It’s the kind of album that really tries to take you someplace; certainly there’s enough bagpipes to earn them dual-citizenship into Scotland and musically it will transport you to the cold and windy highlands and take you across to fog covered vistas of Romania. Comparing yourself to Negura Bunget is a pretty tall order, but they do project that Om-ness here and there, such as on ‘L’Allumamientu Del Fueu III’ and again on ‘Llume D’Augua.’ The influence is there, but that’s not to say this is on a par with anything the Romanian’s have done. Fogeira De Suenos is the debut album from this Spanish lot and while the potential and the ideas are there it’s clear there is still a long way to go. This is quite rough around the edges and the production is certainly not the best and there is still room for them to polish off their own sound.
In places the band take a more straightforward black metal approach and the vocal rasps during these moments are raw and menacing while the drums have that unpolished sound to them. ‘L’Allumamientu Del Fueu I’ has some deathly growls that play out over a sluggish melody, that comes to a halt before the bass brings everything back laying a thick foundation while keys add ambience over the top. Part III (for the sake of brevity) sweeps us in with a strong ambience; the violins are particularly haunting with their jarring screechy delivery, while the guitars have that mesmerising quality that lulls us into a sense of calm before returning to an unhinged state. The bellowed spoken parts again are highly reminiscent of latter day Negura and really add a sense of desperation. At times this album sounds a little dull, but I’d put this down mainly to the poor production and the at times less than tight musicianship. It’s still early days after all. Fogeira De Suenos is a respectable debut that fans of Paganic black metal should get something out of.
http://www.myspace.com/llvmedoom
