Digital Metal.com

The Finnish death metal scene spawned from Amorphis, Sentenced and Children of Bodom had produced some killer acts: Mors Principium Est, Kalmah, Farmakon and Omnium Gatherum just to name a few - all culling something from their countrymates, but the also lifting more than a few elements from Sweden's Gothenburg scene, so much so that pinning a country of origin had become hard.

Enter Finland's Elenium, a melodic death metal act, that while using all the genre's familiar trappings try to inject a little more progressive elements to a tried and true sound. The end result, while not exactly mind blowing, is a solid album of eclectic melodic death metal that shares more with Edge of Sanity than many of their obvious peers, and ends up sounding like a death metal Rush. With a chunky Finnvox guitars and a lower than usual register growl, Elenium flirt with expected Swedish musical trappings, but their synth work and song structures make the album soon weave and dodge all attempts to grasp this band and force their awkward shape into a single’s perfect hole.

After the upbeat and suitably catchy album opener “Up the Long Ladder”, Elenium throw their first sonic curveball in the form of “Eye for a Lie”; quirky riffs and time changes hint at a far more complex approach and possible genre shattering progression, but it seems somewhat superficial and not wholly integrated into Elenium's full sound - rather as a gimmick. The simplicity and familiarity of ballad “Imposter” is far more enjoyable and less convoluted in its delivery. J’s clean vocals aren’t really that great, but they are unique, and the tinkering keyboard work is noticeably different from the preferred sweeping, overly busy synth work of their countrymates.

The early Middle Eastern ebb of “Nameless-Faceless” provides some eyebrow-raising time changes, but seem to be just cover for some competent mid-paced melodic death metal. It seems Elenium’s progressive side is a random on/off switch; at times they can bend melodic death metal into virtually unheard territory (“Moments”), only for it to snap back into predictable by the numbers NSWDM stylings (“Under the Mug”).

That being said both natures of the band's personality are enjoyable enough. The term ‘progressive’ should not be taken to out of context here, For Giving-For Getting is essentially a melodic death metal album, not a Theory In Practice or Canvas Solaris display of skill, but instead slightly different angels and views of well worn elements of the genre; a different synth tone here and there, and slightly off kilter rhythm there, nothing too over the top, but just enough to raise them slightly above the pack, at least initially. There’s just not enough continually above average material on For Giving-For Getting, as it has some stellar moments, but Elenium can't seem able to string those moments together song to song to make for a complete album. If For Giving-For Getting had another two or three songs that mimicked the ‘other side of the pillow cool’ riffs that flourish for the last half of “For Me”, Elenium would be propelled into elite status, but the fact is the album has a lot of predictable filler, even if that filler tries to be progressive.

Album closer “To Aim and Miss” pretty much sums up the album dual personality. It wants to be different and break boundaries, but it does so with minimal change ups and traditional progressive systematics that don’t bring it home. Still, an enjoyable album, with lots of promise that should bridge the gap for those that thought Farmakon’s A Warm Glimpse was to ‘out there’ and that Kalmah are getting too predictable.

Erik Thomas