I just don't know what to think of this album. On one hand, the band are a talented lot of folk musicians: the acoustic/ambient stuff and the male/female operatic vocals are great. And opposing this is the black metal, which is equally impressive. I rather enjoy it when they're just grinding away, not to mention that the "grim" vocals are rather nifty. But does it work as a whole? Well, yes and no.

The folk/opera in "Song for the Autumn Lady", folk/opera/metal in "Watcher's Line", and all around ambience of the intro/opening track are all exceptional. The band has the right idea too - there's loads of variety, and none of the tracks sound in any way the same. The metal is great, the non-metal is fine…but it just doesn't work as a whole. There's too many boring sections to make the CD anything truly special. With a bit of polishing though, I could see the band producing something truly great. Everything here is original (whistling during "The Time of Broken Gates Part II" even!) and I guess that's what makes "Contes et Legendes d'Eleandayl" an above-average experimental black metal album.

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