Review Summary: This album summarizes Stratovarius' work almost perfectly; Generic, with a few incredible standouts.
This album, I felt, was far beneath what Stratovarius is capable of, which is a shame, seeing as some of the materials they used to write was some of the best power metal, in my opinion, in existence. The whole album seemed rather generic and bland, which I am sadly coming to expect from power metal in general.
I do think that there is one song that stands out as one of Stratovarius' greatest works to date, and yes, that is the title track, Elysium. It's almost twenty minutes long, it's a big, sprawling mess, and it seems like it should be chopped up into anywhere from 3-5 songs, but damn it, it's just that good. And for people like me, who just love those artsy, bohemian, 20-minute "2112" imitations, this is one of those songs you could play for an hour straight and not get tired of, for two reasons; First, it is what Freddie Mercury would have written if he toured with Dream Theater (and I do think Dream Theater would have proudly made this a title track if they had written it). Secondly, after playing it for an hour straight, you will find that you have only played it three times.
All in all, a pretty flat album with one (maybe two) standouts. I give the good rating because the title track alone was simply THAT good, and that's a good chunk of the album.
