Ultimate Metal

Melodic death metal interspersed with occasional touches of jazz-fusion and an underlying core of progressive metal, with the odd dash of Pantera esque groove and goth-metal atmospherics and mood. Sound interesting? That's pretty much what Elenium delivers on their debut full length, and they do it in a particularly impressive way as well. The juxtaposition of the passages creates an interesting contrast - for instance, the rabidly aggressive ending to 'Eye For A Lie' - where rapid drumbeats, savage riffery and unhinged screaming combine to devastating metallic effect - is followed immediately by the gentle keyboard intro and clean, gothic vocals of 'Impostor' - which itself then goes to a brutal mid-tempo riff and later throws in a Dream Theater-esque solo in the mid-section.

The disparate influences are all woven together in a wholly convincing manner, and are all wrapped in a nice fat production job. The guitar playing is impressive and technical, with spiralling solos competing with blistering death metal riffage, while the songwriting manages at times to invoke comparisons to Dark Tranquillity, then at other moments sounding like a darker Dream Theater or a cross between On Thorns I Lay and Sentenced. The vocals are varied and impressive too, from deep guttural growls to melodic clean vox and back again.

Elenium are a very promising band delivering a uniquely individual sound that should appeal to fans of most forms of metal in some way. Looking forward to seeing what they come out with next!

8/10

Philip Whitehouse