Elend is a neoclassical darkwave band from France formed in 1993 by composers and multi-instrumentalists Iskandar Hasnawi and Renaud Tschirner. The band's name is German for "misery", however "im Elende sein" is also an Old German expression for "to be far away". The music can be described as gothic and orchestral music with post-romanticism undertones, or simply violent neoclassical. They are often classed as a metal act due to the fact that in their earlier days, they were signed to a label that released metal music almost exclusively.