ECCENTRIC SOUL´S ANATOMY

"Eccentric Soul´s Anatomy" is the debut full-length studio album by Polish progressive extreme metal act Elenium (not to be confused with the Finnish melodic/ progressive death metal act by the same name). The album was released by Lilith Productions in June 2009. Elenium have existed since 2000 and released the Martyria demo in 2001 and the "Via Puritiva" demo in 2003. "Eccentric Soul´s Anatomy" is their first label release though. The CD comes with a booklet where the sheets are in rough bone coloured paper and it gives the album quite a nice appearance.

Elenium play a progressive/ symphonic type of blackened death/ thrash on "Eccentric Soul´s Anatomy". Besides razor sharp guitar riffing, lots of power, both high pitched aggressive vocals and deeper growling ones, the songs feature the extensive use of a 7-piece classical choir and also some keyboards. The technical level of playing is impressive and while the music isn´t merely about technical playing, I just want to emphasize that Elenium know their chops. The focus is mostly on the compositions though and it´s obvious that great care has been taken to integrate the choir to the music. Imagine how "Heartwork (1993)" by Carcass would have sounded if it had included the extensive use of classical choir. Don´t get the wrong impression though. The music is still in it´s basic core technical death/ thrash, so while the parts which include choir definitely gives the music a progressive/symphonic edge, the music is still sure to feel like a kick in the face or the confrontation with a rabid dog. I cannot mention enough times how much I enjoy the extremely aggressive high pitched vocals. They simpy define the word aggressive. They kind of remind me of the caustic vocal delivery by Henrik Ohlsson from Theory In Practice. The album is bookended by "Aeoneurosis" which is an ominous atmospheric intro track and "Impeccable Rain" which is a beautiful acoustic guitar track. The eight tracks in between are all high quality progressive/ symhonic death/ thrash tracks. Just loads of great technically skillful playing and inticate compositions.

The production is clean and sharp. Lots of power and raw energy there.

"Eccentric Soul´s Anatomy" is one of the better surprises I´ve had in a while. It´s one of those albums that restores my faith in progressive extreme metal. I really appreciate the 90s death/ thrash sensibility in the music. The most obvious references for that part of Elenium´s sound are acts such as Carcass and Believer while the classical choir part of the music gives me associations to acts such as Therion and Saviour Machine. A fascinating mix that works well for the most part. I find "Eccentric Soul´s Anatomy" highly recommendable and a 4 star rating is well deserved.