Ellende, founded by multi-instrumentalist L.G. in Graz, Austria, began its journey with the debut EP Rückzug In Die Innerlichkeit thirteen years ago, originally as an introverted, misanthropic, and anonymous project. However, since then, it has grown into an internationally recognised live act with session musicians, something I had the privilege and joy of witnessing at Cosmic Void Festival 2025.
Ellende – Zerfall
Release Date: 2 January 2026
Words: Jools Green
Following on from the impressive reworked album Todbringerin in 2024, L.G. is back with his latest offering, Zerfall, which translates as disintegration. As always, the Ellende sound is firmly rooted in atmospheric Black Metal but also incorporates classical instrumentation such as strings and grand piano.
Once again, with Zerfall, Ellende push beyond the boundaries into a Post-Black Metal sound that is very haunting and darkly reflective, often tormented but always superbly listenable.
The lyrical themes have always touched on difficult subjects, evolving alongside the music, from early reflections on misanthropy, nature, and isolation to later explorations of human nature, social criticism, war, loss, despair, and dementia.
With Zerfall L.G. looks deeply at the concept of being shattered into fragments and the slow, painful process of rebuilding oneself. A confrontation with the void and ultimately a triumph over it, an aspect that is also shaped to a certain extent by a tragic event in his life, with the raw intensity and emotional depth coming from the very depths of his being.
As always, pretty much everything is created and performed by L.G., with the exception of drums, which are by P.F., and there are also a couple of guest musicians on this eleven-track, fifty-eight-minute release.
Zerfall opens with the bleakly reflective Nur, a largely instrumental piece, aside from a spoken element in the background. This is a piece that sets the mood for the album. The pace and intensity build towards the close and flow seamlessly into Wahrheit Teil I, where acerbic vocals tear through the wall of raw riffs.
The pace drops to a reflective, melodic one, and the vocal switches to a whisper. Building with a brief haunting swathe of leadwork, ebbing back to a clean background choral before breaking into a final black assault with acidic vocals and torturous screams overlaid with superb haunting leadwork. I love the bleak contemplative mood across this track.
Following on, again seamlessly is Wahrheit Teil II, where reflective guitar and piano open, building in dramatic drum work, garnished with waves into a raw, black, but reflective mood. The vocals are acidic, powerfully cutting through the gentle wave of raw riffs. The ebbs are gentle, the builds raw, and the overall effect is dramatic, and the leadwork is sublimely haunting.
I love the gradual build of title track Zerfall with the well-considered addition of each individual instrument from piano opener, building with keyboards and drumbeats, taking over two minutes to develop full raw intensity. This is interspaced with reflective swathes without loss of pace until it ebbs out towards the close.
For Übertritt, I like immensely the superb balance between the melodically haunting elements and the darker, powerful swathes across this track. The mix of haunting clean higher and lower vocals in the melodic passages and acidic black vocals in the more dark, intense swathes builds on that aspect. The overall flow of the piece is very fluid, which adds to the engaging quality of the piece. A superb listen.
The mix of cleaner guitarwork, haunting melodies and a mix of acerbic and cleaner vocals and backing vocals on Ode An Licht makes it quite an uplifting listen.
The next two pieces feature the previously mentioned guest musicians. Firstly, Zeitenwende Teil I features a guest violin from Klara Bachmair of Firtan. A bleak, haunting piano and violin opener gradually builds in layers across its plus six-minute duration. A beautifully contemplative piece with the intensity and pace ramping rapidly as the intense riffing and acidic vocals arrive, ebbing back to the piano and violin towards the close.
This is followed by Zeitenwende Teil II, which has a superbly soaring extended guitar solo par excellence from Peter Mairhofer from Norikum, which elevates the piece to the next level.
Reise is, loosely speaking, the official album closer where a spoken soundbite over a haunting drone builds into reflective waves of blackened riffing and sparse drum rhythms. Again, it is a slow builder that ebbs back to more reflective swathes. The vocals are acidic and torturous, and the leadwork reflective. This is a powerfully moving listen, especially if you look more deeply into the potential message behind the soundbites, which return later in the piece and at the close: two answerphone messages and an engaged signal.
The next two pieces are classed as bonus tracks. They tie in well with the rest of the album and add a finality to it. Firstly, Secunda, a cover composed by Jeremy Soule for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, is a beautiful, reflective, well-interpreted piano piece. This is followed by Verborgenes Inneres Leiden, again piano-led with whispered vocals, both pieces bring a feeling of closure to the album.
Zerfall is a powerful and bleakly beautiful, reflective listen end to end, as well as being a technically superb slab of Post-Black Metal and will be available as a CD, vinyl LP and digital download via AOP Records. For more details, visit Ellende.at.
