It’s rather gratifying as a music journalist being right. One of our real pleasures is watching as a band that we believe in and champion at the demo stages goes and releases a debut album on a label such as Code 666 and that is exactly what has happened with Eibon La Furies. Their two demos really stood out as they did something different and took black metal in a historical context along with a healthy dash of bygone mythos, making the music generally sinister, evocative and threatening whilst telling a great story as the music unfolds. This story harks back to the olde halcyon dayes of “Victoriana Occult and Infernal Brigantia” and takes in dark dirty alleys of gaslit London, a place which was the hunting ground of the nefarious and legendary Jack The Ripper. I guess you could call ‘The Blood Of The Realm’ a concept album as it does take us through a bloody tale and even goes as far as to narrate Jack’s wild musings, sometimes with hilarious effect. Lord Eibon Blackwood the main muse behind this brings forth our unsolved (or was it) history that is as much the stuff of legend and combines it with magickal tenacity involving the Golden Dawn and other such arcane musings that really are a delight to listen to.
So what of the actual music you may well ask? Well the almost hour long album is divided into 15 actual tracks including intro and outro and some that are more narrative bridges telling the tale. Many of these were heard on the demos but here the whole scope of the project unfolds and it really is great to sit down and listen to it all unravel like a whores guts, if you will. ‘The Devil Is an Englishman’ is full of sinister hisses from the vocals and blackened cries and rasps, with spoken parts too. In the background comes the mournful wails from Lady Titania Blackwood who also offers some spoken parts. Music clatters along and during the album there are strong moments of symphonic and exuberant keyboard driven black metal along with effects used to further illustrate the tale such as hooves beating and knives sharpening.
This is one of those very rare reviews that you won’t see any other band’s names mentioned and it really is quite unique. Others have attempted putting ideas like this to music certainly, but in black metal I cannot think of any example as conceptually profound as this. Some guest vocals from the great beast himself may not be original (or even approved by Mr Crowley) but again I cannot fault their placing as they really add to the atmosphere. The imagination goes into overdrive even at times into the song titles; you really would have to hear a number entitled ‘Winter Kings, Wicker Men & Her Infernal Majesty Brigantia’ just to see what madness lurks within. ‘Dominion Of Will’ is purely about the song and is incredibly theatrical and flamboyant. It also is catchy as hell, especially considering that it is a bit on the lengthy side as it’s already in your head well before it lets up.
I was pleased to catch the band on their first London show and you can read about that and see the photos in the live section. I don’t really want to go further into the album here as an audience has been requested and I hope will be given, so further questions into this wildly imaginative and uniquely textured musical universe can be explored. For the time being if you want an idea of just what to expect from this twisted journey, illumination is at the links below, just tread carefully and don’t say I didn’t warn you.
http://www.myspace.com/eibonlafuries
http://simseibon.ds5765.dedicated.turbodns.co.uk/index.htm
