Di Meliora

Here we have a four song demo from a little known orthodox black metal band called Lepra. I recently came into contact with this band a few weeks ago, when I was searching for bands whose lyrical themes concerned death worship. I was instantly drawn in by the whole "mystery" aspect of the band, seeing as there is only one picture circulating at the moment and no names whatsoever.

This demo starts off with an introductory track, which consists of choirs and chanting. I was a little worried at this point, seeing as most crappy black metal releases start this way. Then the next track comes in, and I was relieved to see that I was wrong. Lepra play a style of black metal which can be described as a cross between Ondskapt and Ofermod, only less aggressive and far more moody and dark. The band makes extensive use of blasting, although there are many slow passages to maintain the dark atmosphere created by the twisting riffs and the painful-sounding vocals. The lower-than-average quality of the recording also adds to the claustrophobia created by the songs. The demo ends with an acoustic outro, which seems a little out-of-place amidst the other tracks. My only major complaint about this release is that the drums were not mixed very well, which makes it rather hard to tell what they are doing on occasion.

Unlike what MetalArchives says about this band, they did not split up; they merely scrapped all the songs from Di Meloria and changed their name to Eloim. I am dissapointed by the scrapping of the songs, but eager to see what Eloim has to offer when they finally get around to recording something.