Band:	Eleine
Album:	Dancing In Hell
Style:	Symphonic metal
Release date:	November 2020

01. Enemies
02. Dancing In Hell
03. Ava Of Death
04. Crawl From The Ashes
05. As I Breathe
06. Memoriam
07. Where Your Rotting Corpse Lie (W.Y.R.C.L.)
08. All Shall Burn
09. Die From Within
10. The World We Knew
11. Die From Within [symphonic version]

Eleine as in Madeleine Liljestam,‭ ‬which is the name of the‭ ‬striking‭ ‬front-woman who also models for a living.‭ ‬Alongside Rikard Ekberg,‭ ‬she is the main creative force.‭ ‬They are the composers and singers.‭ ‬Like other bands in the symphonic metal realm,‭ ‬Madeleine is the angelic voice,‭ ‬Rikard is the devilish one.‭ ‬They may look good but they are no‭ ‬pretenders.‭ ‬They very well know what they are doing.‭ ‬If Amaranthe stopped toying with subpar watered-down pop melodies,‭ ‬they could pretend to be on par‭ ‬with Eleine.‭ ‬In other words,‭ ‬this is superb symphonic metal with a dash of dark metal,‭ ‬not unlike a dark Nightwish or Epica.

There are some definite gothic elements to their style.‭ ‬Growls,‭ ‬folk passages,‭ ‬fast breaks,‭ ‬that is how some of the darkness creeps in.‭ ‬Just watch some of their videos and you will see how they incorporate gothic themes into their visuals.‭ ‬There is a thrash component to their sound.‭ ‬Or at least there is some definite musical intensity materialized through the intense drumming of Jesper Sunnhagen and the bass mastery of Anton Helgesson.‭ ‬Typically,‭ ‬even before vocals kick in,‭ ‬the music calls for headbanging.‭ ‬And that is how this band stands out.‭ ‬They do manage to counterbalance this intensity with the right amount of melodic symphonic stuff.‭ ‬Not only that,‭ ‬they manage to shine in both extremes,‭ ‬which is a beautiful thing.‭ ‬Beware that this can also induce confusion upon first listen if you don‭'‬t know what to expect.

Their previous effort‭ Until The End‭‬ was slightly more geared towards symphonic metal a la Epica while‭ ‬Dancing In Hell‭‬ overall features harsher,‭ ‬more poignant songs.‭ ‬Don'‬t get me wrong,‭ ‬both albums are equally powerful.‭ ‬That being said,‭ Dancing In Hell‭‬ is edgier,‭ ‬more aggressive.‭ ‬The emphasis is no longer on harmonized melodies,‭ ‬atmospheric keys,‭ ‬choirs and piano.‭ ‬Now we are down to bare-bone business.‭ ‬It is incisive.‭ ‬A more direct route to awesomeness has been charted as is evident from the opening track‭ "‬Enemies"‬.‭ ‬The pace is fast and furious.‭ ‬The atmosphere is dark and the music is aggressive and still slightly progressive.‭

At the end of the day,‭ ‬Madeleine is a talented singer.‭ ‬In addition,‭ ‬Eleine is quite the band.‭ ‬They are creative despite operating within a saturated field.‭ ‬They probably do not stand out enough because they do transcend a few genres.‭ ‬Regardless,‭ ‬if you like your symphonic metal to veer off the beaten path,‭ ‬and lead to a darker path with heavy influences,‭ ‬this is the band for you.‭