For Giving - For Getting ( Rage of Achilles 2003 )
Finland
has created some nice Death Metal bands. I like to think of bands such
as CHILDREN OF BODOM or AMORPHIS for example.
Well, seems like this band ELENIUM has taken a lot of these well known
and appealing "Finnish Death Metal trademarks" and so created
a full-length album that has some ups and downs (with the "ups"
winning at the end tho).
What I pretty much like about this album are the strict Death Metal
parts with harsh and very good growling vocals, the nice and very melodic
leading riffs and hearable guitar soli.
Dislikes (or better: parts that would have been more enjoyable if used
less obvious/often) include the enormous amount of progressive elements.
Merely the keyboard stuff is overdone in almost every song to an level
that is heading towards "pesky" easily.
There is certainly an OPETH feeling to "For Giving, For Getting"
with the mix of synthesizer sound and clean vocals, but unfortunaltely
as pointed out in my opinion a little bit over the top now and then.
Some of the sounds remind of an old computer game or something with
nerving MIDI sound.
Otherwise this is not bad at all and the band shows some potential...
very melodic, very Death Metal from Finland like, very epic, but also
very annoying at times.
Favourite Song: Up The Long Ladder
7 / 10
John Doe