Stratovarius-Elysium

Armoury
2011



Power metal is a genre I freely admit to liking, but I always tend to have a lot of if's added to that admission as in I like power metal if it doesn't too over the top or too caught up those soaring melodies that so many European bands seem to love. So inevitably I don't like every band that falls under power metal label. There just tend to many bands that lost site of the metal part of power metal, but there are quite a few bands I like that play this style too. Now I'll step off my soapbox and get to the review at hand. Stratovarius are a band really take their songwriting seriously. That doesn't mean that's it perfect, but the effort they put into this is quite obvious in the finished project. This albums isn't completely different they have done in the past. There are plenty of epics, soaring melodies and neo-classical styled passages. Yet the solid arrangements and their commitment to really building and shaping the song is what makes this such a fine album. It takes some patience and a few play to really enjoy this ecologically themed release, but it's worth it to do so on the listener's part. I enjoyed the last album "Polaris" well enough, but I think that is immediately obvious that the band is far more comfortable with "Elysium". It's a bit softer around the edges at times and not always my cup of tea, but for the most part they are always moving forward and they keep it interesting. A fine effort indeed.