Eleine
All Shall Burn

Eleine follows their 2018 album with a new EP they call All Shall Burn, an EP that offers very little in terms of new, symphonic versions of a song on the EP and the last album, a Rammstein Cover to name a few things. There are some new songs as well, fortunately. Personally I am not really that fond of the EP-format and I don’t think it has any place in the world of music today, at least not as releases of physical products. I can’t say that much about digital ones as they don’t really require resources to be sold, just some electricity for the computer and the connection. Eleine has two albums before this release and the last one I did review and wasn’t overly impressed, I claimed that they were something like a light version of Epica and I think that is still true – a duller version of Epica could also be used.

Symphonic female fronted metal with some grunty additions are the general picture and every time I hear music this I still compare it with the first time I heard Prison of Desire by After Forever, the magic a genre like this can hold – this band is nowhere near that sensation of magic and novelty. But they are quite good at what they do and I think the female vocals are rather good while the growler or male singer is pretty beige. The sound is pretty strong and they vary it with some industrial metal with a cover or Rammstein’s Mein Herz Brennt, a cover that is way too similar to the original to be really exciting. And that is the thing, what does this EP offer that feels new, interesting or exciting? My answer is nothing.

It isn’t bad but it is dull, the first two tracks are good and feel interesting but then comes nothing. Why not Eleinify the cover song? I would have loved Eleine to sing Mein Herz Brennt and the band actually putting an own twist on it, not just a fairly typical cover that could have been done by almost any band. It is almost like they don’t really dare to move outside established parameters and hence don’t give themselves the chance to make something really exciting. And putting it harshly; in my view releasing pointless stuff like this in physical edition is just a waste of resources and negative for the environment. It is more than enough with an album every other year as that offers a collection of songs and one cannot argue with that even if the songs are dull or not great. But this pointless offering could have been released digitally or not at all.

Why couldn’t they make this EP something interesting instead, with songs they usually don’t make or some outrageous covers? They clearly are good, the singer is strong they know how to make an album sound well, why not use that knowledge to make something exciting. There is too much conformity in the world of music and these guys add nothing of value when they put out another product that will be forgotten before it ends. Too bad that a good band doesn’t dare to take a novel approach, their fans will probably find this agreeable but I doubt many others will remember it when 2019 is to be summarised. Like I wrote in the beginning; it is like a duller version of Epica, a much duller version.

HHHHHHH