Review Text
2022 release. A good song is a good song. It has to work in whatever environment it is staged - be it full-blown oversized stadium rock or intimate acoustic setting. Swedish dark symphonic metal high-flyers Eleine have internalized this little piece of wisdom and have rooted it deep within their artistic integrity. There's no other way to explain their effortless shift between their bombastic side and the deeply spellbinding acoustic guise they present on their brand-new "Acoustic in Hell". For the first time in their skyrocketing career, Eleine unplugs their gear to create a whole new musical experience - right in time for their anticipated acoustic tour with metal veterans Sonata Arctica. "We had never done acoustic versions of our music before, so approaching this challenge was something new to us," says Madeleine. "The main thing we had in mind for these versions was to keep the essence of our metal, to keep it authentic and raw. There is weight to our music, and it's important not to make it overproduced and cute when you get this opportunity", Rikard adds. Recorded within a week in January 2022 in their dear friend Thomas "Plec" Johansson's The Panic Room Studio in Skara, "Acoustic in Hell" gets elevated by a stellar performance courtesy of Madeleine Liljestam who recorded all her vocals in just under three hours. Eleine may have shed their distorted guitars, symphonic splendor and thundering drums on this one. Even more astonishing, however, is that they have managed to create an altogether new acoustic soundscape while still honoring their unique brand of dark symphonic metal thousands more will fall in love within the course of the next few years. This star has only just begun to rise.
