Eilera – “Darker Chapters and Stars…” – (2011)

Independent Release

Review by Luisa Mercier

I already knew Eilera and had appreciated their second album “Fusion”. The following “Darker Chapters and Stars…” features the characteristics that made this band quite known in female fronted metal. A nice blend of prog, gothic, folk and extreme metal that you can hear since the beginning “Marching Towards Dawn”. The drums are very martial as if they were really marching and spoken vocals plus synth make the atmosphere quite gloomy. “Don’t Go Fight” has a powerful bass line which mixes with violin, guitars and Eilera vocals. She is quite unique in metal scene, since her voice would be more suitable for pop/electronica but once you get used to it, it is quite easy to enjoy it. In the end folk suggestions take the lead. “Fly” is a real prog track full of tempo changes and a cello can be heard in the backgoround, courtesy of Max Lilja, former Apocalyptica member. “Passport Please” is a short track but full of rhythm too: it starts gently to become much more energetic. Definetely pop/folk is “Lucie After War” and it fits perfectly Eilera vocals, while “Celtic” is indeed a celtic tinged song. It would have not sounded bad on an Enya album. Back to metal with “Slow Down Metal”. The intro is very heavy and the song reveals itself as a gothic metal track with some atmospheric moments. Really creepy. “Rob My Soul” is again gothic metal with a lot of keyboards that acquires a symphonic, epic twist in the ending. “So What?!” is a song with a strong focus on vocals. Eilera is very expressive here and it is accompanied by powerful riffs and strings. The sample at the beginning of “At a +- Roads” seems coming out a Western movie and the song that follows is a mid-tempo with folk-symphonic elements. Last song is “From Pink to Black” is a power ballad with a nice solo in the middle. It gets heavier in the second half, never losing his emotional feeling. This album is definetely very, very varied. It spans from pop to celtic to gothic metal and I can say that it can be enjoyed by almost everybody out there.

Rating – 80/100

Tracklist

1. Marching Towards Dawn
2. Don’t Go Fight
3. Fly
4. Passport Please
5. Lucie After War
6. Celtic
7. Slow Down Time
8. Rob My Soul
9. So What?!
10. At a +-Roads 
11. From Pink to Black

Line Up

• Eilera – Vocals
• Loïc Tézénas – Guitar
• Jan Sormo – Bass
• Max Lilja – Cello (Additional Musician)
• Laura Airola – Fiddle (Additional Musician)
• Tony Canton – Fiddle (Additional Musician)
• Yoann Le Gall – Drums (Additional Musician)
• Jean Ferry – Drums (Additional Musician)

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