A Grove of Ashes and Aspens

Now Playing: Luna by Elvenking

Ok, so quick preface, I have already listened to the three singles an unholy number of times before the album dropped, and this is being written after listening to the album all the way through about a dozen times. (I’m just like that, and the album is just that worth it.)

Reader of the Runes – Luna is the end of a trilogy of concept albums by Italian pagan metal band Elvenking. It is, in a way, the end of an era, and a continuation of something that started back in 1997 with the formation of the band. It provides an end and context to the stories of those we came to know over the course of Divination and Rapture, the deeper sadness and pain existing in sharp contrast to the aggressive anger of Rapture and the mysterious storytelling of Divination. The overall tone being as dark and harsh as it is follows beautifully in the footsteps of Rapture (and The Scythe, to an extent), their sound ever evolving to reflect their story and yet always recognisable. Throughout the album, there are plenty of little lyrical and melodic references to past tracks, providing an extra layer of familiarity and enjoyment to dedicated and long-time fans who recognise the references.

Season Of The Owl opens the album with an intense drum intro, sweeping melodics immediately following. This song is the perfect opening for the album, setting the dark, heavy, and yet profoundly sad tone that serves as the conclusion of the story. This track also does something that I find very interesting, in that it switches between an ambiguous sort of between duple and triple time in the verses and a more distinctly triple time in the choruses. This is something that can be tricky to balance, and they’ve made it work so well. The vocals here also feel similar to much of Rapture as well, which provides a nice bridge into the new album.

Luna was the second single to drop for this album, existing as the title track, and a fitting one at that. This track has an intense opening and softens for the first verse, before the intensity ramps back up for the rest of the track. The violin line has a quite prominent role throughout, giving Lethien an opportunity to shine with his skill. (He has other places to shine before this, I’m aware. However, I am firmly of the belief that you can never have too much violin in your melodic folk metal.) This is also the first point in the track where the vocals feel more overtly sad, compared to the more harsh pain in Season of the Owl.

Gone Epoch was released as the third single for this album, and, aside from characters and the storyline of the trilogy, the first couple overt reference to a past track within the album. (At least, the first one that I noticed other than the references to the moon and Ethel in Luna. The moon is a common theme for these guys. Not that I can blame them. Anyway.) The first reference comes in the first verse, with the line There is also another reference in the first line of the chorus: “Like riddles of stars, we were lost in the reverie”, a name drop of A Riddle of Stars (from The Scythe, released in 2007). While it is not the first point of sadness in the album, the entire track feels generally a touch more melancholic and reminiscent than Luna, especially with being about past times. The entire track has a generally slightly lighter feel, more reminiscent of the melancholy in Disillusion’s Reel and Neverending Nights.

Stormcarrier is the first feature of another artist specifically on harsh vocals. (Yes, I’m aware they brought Jarpen back on to do harsh vocals during the recording of The Pagan Manifesto. I don’t count that, because that’s bringing back a friend and former member of the band.) Now, off the bat, I just want to appreciate how relatable the chorus is, specifically: “Longing to join with the stars / Yearning for the moon tonight”, because me too. This track has an intro to rival Season of the Owl in intensity, and it brings that sadness seen in Gone Epoch, paired with the intensity, anger, and pain from Rapture, all tied together with a fantastic violin solo in there. (I am a sucker for a good violin solo in folk metal. That is some fun shit.) This is overall a track that calls to a little something inside me I didn’t know needed to feel seen.

Starbath is one of my favourite tracks on the album as a whole. It has the emotion and intensity present in the rest of the album, but with a hint of the same approach that was used on Neverending Nights, with the melancholy and reminiscence over long gone childhood days. There’s also a violin solo here, and when I heard it the first time, my initial thought on the lead up to it (and on the solo itself) was “Wait a minute, that’s just The Horned Ghost and the Sorcerer.” That was a little inclusion that was very well played. It’s generally just a fun song, and though it has that note of sadness to it, I have a lot of fun listening to it.

On These Haunted Shores comes in with a more obscured riff at first, preceding darker and raspier vocals. The entire track gives the sense of sadness and pain mixing together and getting pushed out, with a heavy chorus to have the emotions hit that much harder. Though this track leans more into the duple time, it has that strong sense of knowing itself and a very solid mix of the folk and power metal influences of the band, bringing in some symphonic influences as well. It also includes a lower scream, closer to a growl while still maintaining the pain of the overall track. One thing that struck me as I was initially listening to it (and continues to do so now) was that it pauses right after the final chorus, right before going into the outro, so right when you think it’s over, there’s an extra burst of harsh vocals and epic riffs that just ends the song so nicely.

The Ghosting was released as a bonus surprise lyric video, the day before the album came out. As a track, it holds much more of that sadness that is present within the rest of the album. While other tracks have more jagged pain or anger or other emotions, this one is just pure sadness and melancholy. The track features the story of The Undertaker. The Undertaker as a character is the loneliest of the Diamonds, intentionally keeping himself distant from all the others, with it starting as the story within this album unfolds. (This album is the backstory of the other two, I may go more into that later.) The fear gripping his heart as Ethel drowns causes him to be unable to move, and as such, be unable to save her, even though he desperately wished to. The balance of the entire track with the rest of the album, combined with the knowledge of past tracks (and what could be a reference to The Solitaire with the whole theme of loneliness) makes the track something that I have definitely been needing in my life. It gives me the sense of having someone see into my struggles with pagan loneliness (which I have discussed at length) and reflect it back at me in understanding. (Which is something I deeply appreciate in Elvenking’s music and their constant ability to pull off.)

Throes of Atonement was the first single of this album, released back in late November 2024. Starting with a run up the scale into the main riff, the track overall has much more of a power metal feel than a lot of the rest of the album, but the violin line still very clearly shines through, doubling the lead guitar riff and making it sound ethereal and beautiful. This song was my top track of the year in 2024, and now that the album is out, I love it even more, as it combines the more sad tone of Luna with the anger of Rapture and the more mysterious nature of Divination. It is one of my favourite tracks from the album, alongside Starbath, The Ghosting, and The Weeping.

The Weeping is a much more mysterious track, with an acoustic riff to start and occasional bass notes, and a short trill in the strings overtop. The vocals in this track are also far more mysterious, sitting across Damna’s range and weaving a morbid tapestry of how things escalated to where they ended up in Rapture. This track also serves as a favourite track of mine for how clear the bassline is in the track overall. (We all know how much I love a good bassline, especially in my pagan metal. Jakob can’t sit still with that thing and I’m so here for it.) The entire track generally feels like a mysterious presence that lingers in a place after those who needed to be there are there no longer, and I love it.

Reader of the Runes – Book II is the final track on the album and the trilogy, existing as an answer to the ending track of Divination and sitting at 11 minutes long. This is where more little references to past tracks come into play, especially lyrically. It starts ethereal, an epic riff leading into the opening verse, the vocals soft and light. Here, we find the first lyrical reference to a past track, in the line “Killed by the frost of the morning dew, I’ll find my way back home.” Not long after, in the lead up to the chorus, there’s a “firmament of stars” mentioned, and though that isn’t a direct mention, I like to consider it as a reference to both A Poem to the Firmament and possibly also A Riddle of Stars. The ethereal and beautifully sad vibe continues, especially when the chorus comes around. After the second chorus, there is an instrumental section, with more of Jakob’s fantastic bass work exposed. (My bassist ass could not be happier about this, give me my bass clef things.) Damna’s vocals in this track go into a harsher section in the middle, where there also exists a reference to Silverseal. The balance of power and emotion is one that can be very hard to achieve properly without being overwhelming, especially when there are stylistic changes in the vocals that get as dramatic as this, and yet this track manages to show his skill as a vocalist to be able to balance the two without either side getting overwhelming. This song, much like Reader of the Runes – Book I, includes the core of the text from Diamonds in the Night, using much of the melody as well, though it cuts off the final note, leaving the melody unfinished, perhaps representing the cruel way in which Luna’s life was ripped from her by a cruel prank. A pained, yet muted scream brings to mind the loss of the characters within this trilogy, as their friend dies in front of them, the rest of them unable or unwilling to do anything about it.

Overall, this is such a solid album. It has everything I love in an album, between lore, fun and interesting bass work, powerful and melancholic vocals, and so many other little details that make the entire album feel alive and like a story you keep wanting to return to, no matter how sad you know it will make you. Though my vinyl is still in transit at the time of writing, I am so excited for when I finally get it, and it will be deeply cherished among my collection.