Dark Clouds In A Perfect Sky

Elis already has a new album to propose only a year after their first release. Do bands really have time to compose a new album within a year ? It all depends who composes the songs. If it’s the same guy that does all the writing, I don’t think he really wouldn't have time to unless he doesn’t do anything else but to focus on the band. On the other hands, if the writing process is shared between five or six members then I believe it is possible. In Elis four of the five members are solicitated for the writing process, but when you listen to the album you don’t have the feeling that four different people actually did the writing process as the album seems linear and repetitive. I don’t remember if I had mentioned it on the previous reviews, but I found very little variation among most of the songs. The classical and electronic elements present on God’s Silence Devil’s Temptation are to be present again, only I do find this album to be a little heavier than the first one, which is rarely the case since most of the goth metal acts tends to become more and more of atmospheric metal bands over the last years. Even though Sabine Dünser angelic vocals are coupled with bassist’s growling male as secondary vocalist on a few songs without overbearing Sabine’vocals, Elis’s sophomore still remains an easy listening type of dark gothic metal. Piano and keyboard still fills in the atmosphere in the background. The band continues to use German language on three songs and that’s really what demarks them from the overwhelming quantities of gothic acts. Besides, it accentuates the classical touch of the band as most of the operas are in German. Drums are handled by Atrocity Martin Schmidt on three tracks and I think it was also the case on the first album. Besides, the album has a very refreshing and crystal clear production by Alex Krull again at Mastersound Studio (seems like Napalm Bands deserted Sound Suite for Mastersound Studio). 5 or 10 years ago it would have offered a refreshing and original take on metal, but nowadays with the quantities of bands it has become nearly impossible to do so. I can only find myself a little disappointed with this second album that was very promising. Definitely a satisfying record, but not what it could have been. The artwork seems much or less familiar to me, don’t you think ? Don’t you remember Moonspell’s fourth album The Butterfly Effect? It also had a butterfly on the fore front, only there it was justified. It remains a nice looking artwork anyway that will undoubtedly attract the fan of the genre to check it out. The limited digipack edition features a bonus track Show Me Heaven and that the purpose of the limited digipack, isn’t it ? I hate digipacks, especially if it doesn’t offer anything more than the regular edition.