Band:	Elvaron
Album:	The Five Shires
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	May 2001
A review by:	Jeff

Disc I
01. Prelude
02. The Kingdom Of Lerendi
03. The Elves Of Alfheim
04. The Dwarves Of Rockhome
05. The Nothern Reaches
06. The Orcs Of Thar
07. Finale
08. The Tower Of Palanthas
09. Beyond The Gate
10. Bloodstone Lands
11. Quest For Alifaar's Door
12. Killianor's Sight
13. The Rope

Disc II
01. The Call Of The Black Dragon - Part I
02. The Call Of The Black Dragon - Part II
03. The Call Of The Black Dragon - Part III

Elvaron is a band of Epic Prog/Heavy metal from France. "The Fives Shires", their 2nd cd was released in 2001. Today we are lucky to have this new re-edition of this album. Why lucky ? Well because this album was a real jewel of the year 2001 but unfortunately due to the lack of means, the production was not very good. And now believe me, it's not the same story. This re-edition totally re-recorded [with a new Line-Up] and re-mastered sound just great, and when I see that we have a bonus cd with a new original song "The Call Of The Black Dragon" I can just applause the work of this band.

Elvaron do an excellent Epic Prog/Heavy metal. The sound o their music is really uncommon. Imagine, a great mix of bands like Dream Theater, with the power of a Symphony X for the Prog part, a bit of Rhapsody for the Epic part of the music and the big and powerful heavy sound of Thrash bands like Testament or Megadeth. Original isn't it? Yes of course and it's certainly one of the reasons why Elvaron is one of the best bands from France.

The album is 70 mins of pure happiness. All the tracks are good, well done, with "The Fives Shires" you'll find a lot of emotions, sadness, anger for example. All that with an excellent story of pure Fantasy. Another time it's hard to blame the guy of the band. It's too easy to see that we have a lot of work for that album.
The lyrics and the story of the cd are very well writing, as I said before, it's a pure Fantasy story and the concept of this album is well found.
The musicians of the band are good no doubt on that point too. Matthieu has a very good voice and his guitars solo are more than effective, Nicolas is this kind of guy who can do perfect Metal lines of Bass or incredible jazzy slap. The drum with Fred is powerful and the melodies of Thomas through are Keyboards are another time with this band more than good.
The music of Elvaron is really progressive. In this album, you will find some ballads and acoustic parts, a lot of really heavy and powerful guitars riffs very near of Thrash Metal, and even, some jazzy bass lines. Very interesting, very cool to listen.

The new production is now excellent. The sound of the album, is near of the perfection this time and damn at the end it's just a great idea to do this re-edition with such production.
The booklet is also new, the cover too in brief thank you guys and thanks to Thundering for that. Ok the ones who already have the old version can be annoying by this idea but if you really like the first version, no doubt that you will love this one. And remember that you have in bonus an excellent song of 20 mins "The Call Of The Black Dragon" that will give to you an idea of the sound of the next album. And you can trust me, it's more than good.3

At the en I recommend this album to all the people who like great music. If you like Prog, or Epic Heavy, or if you like Thrash no doubt that you'll be dazzle of this great album. This guys are great and I can add anything else.
"The Fives Shires" is a great production, follow me, go to your record seller and buy this album.