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Akelei are a Doom Metal act from the Netherlands who released their debut over a decade ago, which got some praise when it was released. Since then, the band became a one-man project led by founder Misha Nuis and went largely silent until very recently with their EP Een Van Ons, which contains a bevy of session musicians along with Misha himself on guitars and vocals. I'm not familiar with their previous works, so I can't compare them with this release, but I will say that while there's some powerful stuff on here, it's got some big problems holding it back.

Stylistically, this is very laid back and atmospheric Doom with long, drawn-out arrangements that lean heavily on pianos, violas, and general ambience while the guitars are mostly in the background. Misha's vocals are a sort of sotto voice that fit the mood he's going for pretty well without really standing out too much, and he's sometimes joined by some lovely female vocals that I kind of wish led the songs more. The songs themselves unfortunately suffer the problem a lot of melancholic Doom bands have by having songs that go on for a long time largely for the sake of it while not having strong enough songwriting to support it. There are good melodies to be found, but they often get repeated far too much as the songs take too long to build atmosphere and end up being rather dull because of it. The one exception to all of this is the lovely album closer "Hierna (van binnenuit)", which is an arresting song with powerful melodies and a lovely duet between Misha and guest singer Aline Kuiper that properly builds on itself until it reaches a triumphant crescendo at the end, and more's the pity the other two tracks can't compare.

The closing track alone is enough for me to keep an eye on Akelei in the future, but despite that one moment of greatness, Een Van Ons meanders way too much for me to recommend all that highly. As background music for a rainy morning, it's pleasant enough, but on closer inspection it's mostly kind of thin.