Out of all of the bands that I've been listening to that combine the grimly beautiful chamber rock of groups like Godspeed You Black Emperor and thunderous, heavy hardcore - and there are a few, including Requiem, Remains Of The Day, and Dimlaia - few have sounded as majectic and epic and catchy all at the same time as Fall Of Efrafa, a UK band that combines gloomy instrumental music often augmented by piano and cello, crushing hardcore of the darkest sort, and descents into bleak, apocalyptic doom, all surrounded by imagery and lyrics that draw from the mythology of Richard Adam's classic novel of rabbit society, Watership Down. Their name, their album titles and lyrics and much of their artwork is all taken from Watership Down, and that conceptual quality by itself sets these guys apart from most of what's going on in hardcore. Their first album Owsla, which is almost out of print, was a powerful piece, but the fusion of epic instrumental rock and melodic crustcore is even more fully realized on Elil, the second in their ongoing Warren Of Snares trilogy. Each song on Elil is a 20+ minute epic, beginning with the very Godspeed-ish first half, where sorrow-filled guitars and patient drumming is met with faintly distorted spoken word samples, and then bursts into a triumphant blast of Tragedy-esque melodic crustcore about 10 minutes in, finally ending in a mighty droning dirge metal coda. "Dominion Theology" again starts with a quiet post-rock intro, but that's quickly overtaken by a crushing melodic metal dirge, think Mouth Of The Architect or Neurosis, super epic and majestic, erupting into faster hardcore parts that are so melodic that the hooks are actually pretty "poppy" despite the grim atmosphere in the song, and then settling back into extended instrumental rock, a grooving bassline and heavy drums paired with soaring guitar leads. The spoken word samples apppear again in the opening to the last track "For El Ahrairah To Cry" over softyl strummed acoustic guitars, but are quickly swallowed up by monstrous doom metal. All three songs follow a similiar pattern of alternating passages of folky, Godspeed style post-rock with hard charging heavy crust a la Tragedy and His Hero Is Gone, and slower, doomier heaviness, and the album is pretty much laid out to be listened to as a single work. It's one of the most epic "crust" albums I've ever heard, and I've been coming back to it over and over this past week, in spite of how overwhelming and huge it sounds. The disc comes in a thick, 6-panel gatefold jacket printed on recycled stock, which houses the disc and an 11x17 poster. Highly recommended.