My image of an ideal symphony of musical bliss doesn't necessarily resemble the sounds of steam trains running over alley cats.

A Finnish death tag, a cover mostly suited for Goth and an opening track trekking in unwanted Danzig boredom had the writings for a death metal accident waiting to happen. Plus I felt we didn't need another Kalmah doing more In Flames and Children Of Bodom. Could you imagine hearing this vocalist doing his version of a Laiho/Frieden mix.

So, deeper into the Elenium soul you go, the clearer things got. It didn't matter whether their mid-paced melodic death metal is gonna generate a new sub-category or do it better or worse than others. How blatant Elenium are in brandishing or copying their Scandi-influences/predecessors could seem all that less important once you are able to notice in what way a few facets, to an extent, make things interesting.

From a personal standpoint, the production qualities for the band, namely the music's textures and guitar tones, bring forth a personal enthusiasm never expected from a bunch of no names. The crisp and aggressive edge rather intensify the degree of enjoyment and perfectly match instead of clashing (most times often than not) with the constant knack for melody which thankfully spares me from that excruciating sound of chainsaws cutting blackboards or that muddy toilet sound used in black metal believed to help a band musically define themselves.

Furthermore, Elenium will sound they are trying to attempt the Soilwork cookie/clean thinggie, of course, but their vocalist is not the worst nor the best but probably the smoothest grunter I've heard of in a while. He either goes coarse, clean or spoken which really comes down to him being normal.

Above and beyond all, you know how keyboardists and their tactics, when not used right, tend to hinder the heaviness within the metal? Elenium's case has one keyboardist who as dexterous as important, should be commended on how well he is able to align himself with the music and highly contribute to that eerie atmosphere that makes the hair on your neck and arms stand up. The fact Elenium is anything else but really death metal is a good thing for my pickiness needed not be used entirely.

Elenium are not about to get huge marks from me on the basis of the most original, talented or most technical band out there (why are people saying they are?). God knows I could use more melody but that's just me. Then again, all those hard-core analysts should get a life. In contrast why not give them a big hand for a surprisingly good job on the production fronts, no really (unlike many just starting off), their sense for diversified moods and also for possibly having another Vitalij Kuprij in their hands… Most of all, scratch everything I just said cause in the end none of it matters. All that matters is I can see many enjoying this cause Elenium might become a new favorite for the millennium. Whether they do Soilwork, Tristania, Amorphis, In Flames, Children Of Bodom or whichever band that beat them to it, you can dig it.