Band:	Elysion
Album:	Someplace Better
Style:	Symphonic gothic metal
Release date:	January 24, 2014
Guest review by:	WayTooManyCDs

01. Made Of Lies
02. Someplace Better
03. Fairytale
04. The Promise
05. Our Fate
06. Awake
07. What Lies Beneath
08. Transparent
09. Breakfree
10. In Despair
11. Changing
12. Made Of Lies [Instrumental] [digipak bonus]
13. Someplace Better [Instrumental] [digipak bonus]

Female fronted metal bands are somewhat of a rarity; yes there are a lot of bands with male and female vocalists but few bands have ONLY a female lead. When Anneke van Giersbergen burst on the scene with The Gathering it seemed metal was on the verge of a revolution, van Giersbergen destroyed the assumption that female vocals "couldn't work" in metal and left the doors wide open to unexplored territories. Perhaps she was too far ahead of her time as no one was ready to follow in her footsteps back in 1995. Nearly 15 years later Elysion stepped up with a poppier, more mainstream metal sound to try to capitalize on this mostly untapped area of the metal world...but did they succeed?

Silent Scr3am was an alright, if overly safe, debut and one that went largely unnoticed by fans of the symphonic metal genre. Someplace Better, their sophomore release, holds a lot more potential to be a breakthrough album. I've played Someplace Better for a variety of people, including people who would normally be disgusted by the very idea of listening to metal, and I have yet to have anyone dislike it. Then again I've mainly only played "Made of Lies" for them, which is a clear standout hit, and honestly no other song on the album comes even close to matching it.

The unfortunate part of relying heavily on being "catchy" is that the most catchy song will ultimately overshadow everything else. This isn't to say the rest of the album is bad, in fact the final four songs on Someplace Better are very good and make for one of the stronger closings of any album in the genre in my opinion. Even so, everything before those tracks ("Made of Lies" excluded) all blend together into a hard to distinguish clump. Quick songs with alright hooks and little else to set them apart.

= In Short = I have a lot of respect for Elysion, the difference in quality between Silent Scr3am and Someplace Better is huge, which shows that they are trying hard to produce the best music they can. If Elysion can take another big step forward on their next record then we may soon be hearing their name in the same breath as other underground juggernauts Lacuna Coil, Nightwish and The Gathering. In spite of a few clear faults, if you are the type of person who can enjoy the strengths of an album without needing every song to wow you then I'm certain there is enough on Someplace Better that you'll put it on rotation for years to come to make the album worth your while.