What was I thinking? I thought Italy was THE breeding ground for theatrical power metal and (a little less) gothic metal. I was wrong. Ephel Duath is from Italy and these guys play music that’s nowhere close to power or gothic metal. Their record label Earache describes it as jazz metal and I can live with that. It’s a bit of a mixture of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Primus and Mr. Bungle.

I wasn’t familiar with Ephel Duath before I received this album, so I did a bit of research on the internet and found out that these guys exist since 1998. At this moment Ephel Duath is a three-piece (Luciano Lorusso George on vocals, Fabio Fecchio on bass and Davide Tiso on guitar), but for live shows they hire Andrea Rabuini on drums.

The name of the band may sound familiar to you. Well, if you have read (or seen) ‘Lord Of The Rings’ you probably know that Ephel Duath is the mountain range near Mordor. Well, the music has nothing to do with Tolkien or his stories.
The music is pretty complex and mostly instrumental. When the vocals kick in, they’re really aggressive and that’s when the band reminds me of tDEP. So this isn’t an album you put on for some easy listening, it is pretty complex now and then.