The Elysian Fields - Suffering G.O.D. Almighty [2005]

Whoa. I was expecting some more techno influence, but not this much. Production quality is way heavier and more forward. Seems like they've mostly replaced the orchestra with techno leads on top of thrash sections. Nearly half-way through the album they finally start blending some orchestra in with the techno… and it's a damn good blend. It's insane, it gets more and more creative as you travel further into the cd. It's a bit of a shame, because if they had started the album with this kind of creativity instead of slowly wading deeper into it, then it could've been their best by far. However, it's still phenomenal when you get into the thick of it, and, who knows, they may have intended to slowly progress deeper into this style throughout the album.

Rating: 8.5

http://www.zenial.nl/html/elysianf.htm

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

The Elysian Fields - 12abLAZe [2001]

Interesting, definitely not what I thought it would be like. The production is a bit better than We… The Enlightened. I wasn't expecting such a melodic riff to open up the CD. Then it goes into a cool keyboard part with grinding that's much more Black Metal. Eventually drops out into piano and really evil keys. The keys feel like they're missing a bit of power because of the way they're recorded, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. HOLY SHIT! THEY'RE USING STEEL DRUMS??!! The production lacks a bit of punch, but makes up for it by having all the instruments be crystal clear. Second track starts off with beautiful keys. Album seems like it's going to be nicely varied. Really cool key parts in track 3… it has a strange feel to it, like a video game but a bit more epic. Track 5 is blazingly fast. Overall, this CD is way creative in it's songwriting. It's got a very fantastic quality to it that makes it feel like it's from another planet all together. The keys are amazingly well-done throughout the entire album. I don't think that there was one key part that fell flat for me. The guitar riffs are ok overall, but the starting riff of the cd really made me worried until the keys kicked in that they had sold out and were just following the Melodic Metal trend that everyone and their dogs are doing. Even though the guitars are pretty stock melodic riffs throughout the album, there are times of real genius where the riffs synthesize perfectly with what the keys are doing and create a very fantasyesque feel to the song. The album has flow, but it isn't perfectly connected like Dream Theater's Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and doesn't leave me at the end with tears in my eyes. However, it's still a damn compelling album written very very well.

Rating: 8.5

http://www.zenial.nl/html/elysianf.htm

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

The Elysian Fields - We… The Enlightened [1998]

Definitely true black metal. Not quite what I was expecting because I've listened to some of their other stuff before and it was a bit more unique. Nonetheless, this was pretty good and had some small amounts of creativity. I've listened to this album after a long break and I'm knocking it up a full point. There's much more creativity and similarity to 12abLAZe than I previously noticed and the songwriting definitely deserves higher marks. The production is this album's largest fault.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.zenial.nl/html/elysianf.htm

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.