The Nancy-based band was formed in 1993 as Skeletons Of Hell by Morand and issued the Necromantia demo in 1995 and The Mages Battle demo in 1997. This brought a deal with Thundering Records. The Five Shires was reissued as a double-CD by Thundering Records in April, 2004. Fred Seiler left after recording The Mages Battle and soon returned. The Buried Crown was a concept album featuring Classical musicians and was mastered at La Source studio. The band has opened for Iron Maiden among others.

ELVARON - THE BURIED CROWN - THUNDERING
It is easy to ignore bands like this with their piano players, orchestral and symphonic pretend games and hackneyed so-called heavy metal. Elvaron is not exactly a metal band - not even a fringe player - but the band's pseudo-orchestral progressive music bears resemblance to a meeting of Testament and Evergrey gone Classical. The concept album borrows a lot from Classical music and uses a dark and progressive fantasy orientation that sets it apart from the heaps of contenders. Given the band's chosen style one glaring weakness in the quartet's arsenal is the singing of Mathieu Morand who is often adrift in the sea of pitch and tone. His Sentenced-meets-Metallica rasp begs replacing. The disjointed drumming is not anything to write home about either. Elvaron is for the fantasy lover with a sense of pomp and orchestral circumstance. - Anna Tergel