Ellimist
s/t

Ellimist takes their name from the literature, and the conceptual story of the debut album is loosely based on the Ellimist chronicles. The American trio has written thirteen chapters and covered them with a really nice artwork, a graphical material they could keep and evolve for upcoming material when they continue their story. It could be an interesting story, it sure looks nice, and I read at places that they want to evolve the progressive music – which I don’t think they do, but to try is a commendable approach.

They mix genres pretty much from progressive death metal, to pop, folk and lots of stuff in between. I think they cover a wide range of the musical spectrum in a fairly modern sounding album. However, I think that the production, though good, could have been better with a more dynamic sound to better accent the variations and dynamics of the songs. This album becomes too long, and it often feels like everything is on idle through many parts of the album – it feels a little tired perhaps. The growly vocals are quite poor as well, nothing that would impress anyone.

My overall impression is that it is an album that leaves a lot to be desired. They do several things right as well, the idea to mix genres is great, the story concept as well, there is nothing wrong with the ambition but the execution leaves some to be desired. And that may be their problem, who is the target for this album? I should be in that group enjoying progressive music, and also music that cross borders and mix up the genres. But Ellimist don’t quite do that, they might want to be mixing it up and be unpredictable, but they aren’t.

I find this album to be less exciting than it looks, the cover looks way better than it sounds. But that is not the only issue, the thing is that it is a bit dull, and it is difficult to see anyone really enjoying this one. I don’t want to be harsh on bands, especially not up and coming ones, and even less when they are actually trying to do something interesting, but in the end it is about pointing out what I hear and that isn’t a very impressive album. I am not saying that Ellimist will be disliked by everyone, their sound and stuff are probably solid enough to work decently but compared with other similar bands they are below average.

HHHHHHH