Album Details: This epic release was the first one to be officially unleashed onto the world under the banner of Elvira Madigan. The twelve tracks were all finished recorded in September 1999 followed by a longdrawn mixing & mastering which ended in November that very same year, paving way to the launch of the first elviramadigan.com site. It did however stay unreleased for one year until "Northlore Records" was formed so that the CD could hit the streets in October 16 2000. In the autumn of 2004 the album was finally remixed, remastered and reissued in a quite different version which is actually more atuned with what my intentions were in the very beginning. The soundscape is vastly improved and though some five bonustracks have been removed, the once excluded hidden track is now available for the first time. The wonderful opus and its' greatly conceptual nature provides much more of an impact with this reissue so for me personally, this is the real official version whilst the first edition (though of great historical value) was more of a starting point. As is common on most Elvira Madigan releases each song tends to melt into each other and this album is no exception. It is probably the most unified album I have done due to the heavy use of the same handful melodies throughout several songs. It is not conceptual regarding the lyrics though, although the topic of the words flirt heavily around the black arts and rituals of the evil craft. I do however manage not to take a certain standpoint as I do believe satanism should be viewed upon as nothing else than a very intruiging philosophy. And I do feel that practising rituals is just as ridiculous be it Christendom, Judaism, Satanism or any religion. So this album probably provides more of my personal opinions and views upon these matters disguised in fairytales than any other EM album. Anyway, compared to the only album prior to this (which is the "Elvira Madigan" debut) the introduction of heavier, more melodic, and perhaps more accessible songs is rather striking. To get a copy of the first edition version of this CD one needs to check out the Shop. The re-issued version should be available in any local CD-store.