Symphonic Death-Metal.
“Regent Sie” is a very theatrical, symphonic Black-Metal concept album split into sections like the movements of a classic piece. It is basically all the work of one man • Marcus Madigan, working under the name Elvira Madigan (named for the Danish tightrope walker in the 1800’s who was killed by her lover). Marcus is a pretty hands on guy, as well as vocals he plays all the instruments on the album, runs his own website and myspace page and does all his own artwork.
The track-listing on the CD cover is a touch confusing, to say the least, split into sections with numbered tracks that don’t seem to be in consecutive order...odd, but what’s important is that in total there are a massive 23 tracks, some of which are epic in length, the opener ‘Mortal Man & The King’ being over nine minutes long. Luckily this Swedish one man band has some sound tunes otherwise it could seem like a bit of a slog. He’s obviously very talented, showing off his skills on classical/electric guitars, turning out engaging synth melodies and coming up with some complex drum programming as well as displaying a mind boggling variation in his vocal styles which range from death metal squeezed growls to crooning and pretty much everything else in between.
The mix of melodic, gentle sections with voice, classical guitar/synths and metal riffs, squeals and fuzzy noise work really well, there are some great ideas here and it’s obvious that Marcus Madigan is brimming over with them, occasionally though there is too much going on. At more than one point in the album I was convinced that I must have another window open on my PC with something playing on it because it really sounded like more than one track was playing at once.
Lyrically it’s all sung in English and there are several points where Marcus cuts to speaking the words in a gruff, low, very English sounding accent (even though he’s Swedish), these sections all tell a part of the bigger story which is a fantasy saga of sorts involving castles, queens and fair maidens. It’s all very pompous but in an enjoyable and engaging way.