Melodic death metal is a dish best served cold, because it hasn’t been hot for five years. (rimshot) Seriously, if you have Carnal Forge, Dew Scented, Arch Enemy, and any of the millions of almost as cool bands that made up this style you know that no one is really doing anything with it that hasn’t been done. It’s just a tad too specific and formulaic to get away with pretending at timelessness. The two styles it was able to mingle with for a semblance at freshness – hardcore and thrash – have pretty much run their course as well. So we have a problem when we address a record like Elysium’s Godfather.
It’s a good record in its way. It doesn’t get anything wrong and it gets a great deal more than right. In 2001 this might have been able to kick Carnal Forge off my playlist. But in 2006 it barely gets a sniff of its own, unfortunately. Where it excels is in energetic, percussive performances of energetic, percussive songs. It’s a consistently stinging series of bitchslaps, brought to your cheek with superb guitar playing and a violent rhythm section. Recorded with a crisp, middening heaviness and clarity, and an excellent mix. The songs themselves are varied in tempo, but generally consist of polka, mosh and thrash beats.
Which is the problem, of course. Don’t they ALL come with above par production, above par musicianship (wait a minute…if all the MD bands are above par musicians…doesn’t that make them “par”, logically?) and tight songwriting. It’s a catch 22 in a way. The problem is that you want to play straight up melodeth. There just isn’t a fuck of a lot of room to maneuver, so all you can do is go in full throttle to keep those tie fighters off your back….(Star Wars reference. Credibility of author explodes in flames on the surface of the death star below…) Anyway, the point is that we all know how this sounds because they all really do sound about like this. And that REALLY pisses me off. I am in the paradoxical position of slagging a band because they are very good.
But that bottom line demands it of me. If you STILL get excited when you hear this stuff I think you should get this record ASAP. It is a very good example of the style and certainly does nothing to detract form the goal of melodething you to melodeth. But…what the hell, man? If you are more like me, then this will be pleasant enough, but not really worth buying. And you can’t really get around that fact. This a fantastic album for niche fans, but for the average metalhead it’s just another melodic death record. Too bad, but accurate.
