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It took some time before I recognized a Rage of
Achilles release in ‘For Giving – For Getting’ because the received
material seemed a self-financed album at first sight. Nothing is
less true! It concerns here an album of the Finnish Elenium,
released in November 2003 by above mentioned label (the ones that
also released the excellent ‘Of Empires Forlorn’ of While Heaven
Wept, hail!). In 2004 the album was released in the USA by The End
Records.
The black and white artwork is largely forgiven
when I discover the guiding information, the lyrics and most
important: the music that really kicks ass! Sympathetic band, formed
in 1995 in Vantaa, Finland, with as biggest point of inspiration the
melodic death metal of Amorphis at the time of ‘Tales From The
Thousand Lakes’. Two demos were recorded but it was only in 2002
that things got some speed when their third demo ‘Them Used Gods’
was sold out soon and they got noticed by Rage of Achilles.
This debut album however sounds very matured and
competent. It is not the most accessible music to swallow for every
song has a great diversity. ‘Up The Long Ladder’ breaks loose with
heavy riffs but the highfaluting keyboards betray a slightly
progressive touch. It is conspicuous that the technical fast-speed
guitars also have a prog influence, although you have to like a
portion of solid death/thrash energy too. Jukka has a gratifying,
understandable grunt but there are many parts where he uses his
‘clean’ vocals. In the greasy ‘Eye for a Lie’ it is once again the
keys who dominate the composition. These are the two heaviest songs
of the CD for in ‘Impostor’ the clean vocals get more space and the
guitar-lines are interchanged with heavy parts with grunts and a
catchy chorus. This sounds real prodigious! It’s the kind of tricky
stuff that reminds me a bit of Alchemist and that’s the kind of
stuff I like. Because there is no dull moment at all and everything
is surrounded by energetic, inventive outbursts.
Tracks like ‘Nameless/Faceless’ and ‘Moments’ contain a combination
of melancholic excerpts and eruptions of pure energy and it’s done
so well. Above all they always kept an eye on the strength of the
melodies. Listen to the jazzy piano-notes in ‘Subcreator’, the
flashing guitar-intro of ‘To aim and miss’ or the classical outro of
the album, every time the band surprises us and it makes me conclude
that this is no common band but bloody well-done. Because there is
place for calm interludia and they can swallow the bait too, Elenium
is a band to keep an eye on. The band is busy writing new songs now
to enter the studio at the end of 2004 to make a successor for this
enchanted debut. |
