Soijl - Endless Elysian Fields (CD)

Review
Terroraiser
7/10

С этим соло-проектом Маттиаса Свенссона, в наших краях более известного как гитарист Saturnus, постоянные читатели нашего журнала уже знакомы по интервью в 64-м номере нашего журнала и по прилагаемой к нему компиляции. Остальным же, наверное, нужно сказать, что SOIJL – довольно интересный проект в рамках doom/death metal, причем доля death metal в нем отнюдь не призрачна. Ну, и что для этой музыки чрезвычайно важно – материал очень эмоционален, что не всегда удается на своих работах передать малоопытным музыкантам. Маттиас, конечно, к таковым не относится, поэтому “Endless Elysian Fields” вполне можно уверенно рекомендовать поклонникам этого жанра.

Author: Thrashmentor

Review
Pavillon 666
7.5/10
11.10.2016

SOIJL était au départ un homme nommé Mattias Svensson mais ce n'est qu'en 2014 que le one man band Suédois devint un groupe à part entière avec l'arrivée de Henrik Kindvall. Ce renfort fut un vrai déclic puisque seulement un an après, le premier album de la formation Doom/Death Mélo vit le jour. « Endless Elysian Fields » sera donc notre sujet du jour, galette sortie sur le label bien connu Solitude Prod.

L'album commence en premier lieu par le titre éponyme annonçant la couleur au vue de sa longueur. C'est sept minutes quarante trois secondes qui s'abattent sur vous dans un style qui pourrait rappeler BLACK SUN AEON période « Darkness Walks Beside Me », un Doom/Death Mélo riche en émotions mais quand même plus long sur la durée.
Les différents plans et musiques s’enchaînent paisiblement, sans réels tressaillements certes, mais avec un sentiment de faire partie de la musique en elle-même. Autrement dit, les patterns mélancoliques nous font compatir à la douleur du chanteur ou aux émotions qu'il veut nous offrir comme dans « Dying Kinship », une ode à sa bien-aimée qui s'est enfuis, ou encore « Swan Song », composition déjà plus haineuse grâce à cette voix aiguë et sale. Tout ceci se renforce encore lorsque l'on tient le livret dans les mains. Les différentes pages recèlent d'illustrations travaillées collant d'abord parfaitement aux paroles écrites sur cette même page, puis plus largement à l'ambiance de la composition.

Les compositions, dans leur ensemble, ne semblent pas tellement révolutionnaires mais sont tout de même efficaces. On retrouve tout au long de l'album les clichés du style (évolutions rythmiques, claviers...) sans que cela soit redondant. C'est bien amené, propre, et cette voix haut-perchée donne résolument un sentiment de dialogue, voire d'affrontement bien/mal, au vue de la dimension sombre de sa tessiture. Et pour finir, la production est impeccable. Que demander de plus ?

Le duo Suédois nous a pondu ici un bien bel album, fruit de seulement un an de travail à deux. La collaboration des deux compositeurs a abouti à une sortie mature, sortant peu des chemins battus, mais faisant tout de même son effet. « Endless Elysian Fields » est un opus à écouter pour tous les fans du genre !

Author: NegativeHate

Review
Doom-Metal.com
8.5/10
01.10.2016

If proof were actually needed that most, if not all search engines, are hideously biased towards whatever it is the mainstream wants to look at, just enter Swedish doomsters Soijl's name into the search bar and press play. If you're lucky enough to get an option to head in the direction of websites devoted to Solitude Productions' Death Doomsters then crack on. Otherwise it's straight towards the realms of soil pipes, soil stacks or a band called...Soil. Who knows, they might be really good. Difficult to say these days. They look like they could easily be post-grunge mediocrity personified, or even some manifestation of metal-core, whatever the hell that actually is.

Soijl are neither. Which is a relief. With twin-guitar lines turning the clock back to the days when 'Serenades' hardly left my turntable and with a punchy modern sound giving glimpses of what Anathema might have sounded like if they'd stayed Doom and released at least one or two more albums with Darren White, 'Endless Elysian Fields' is a wonderful expression of what Doom Metal can be all about. Dark, brooding, emotive, and filled from top to bottom with heavy, stately riffs.

Despite a lack, or sparse use, of keyboards, I'd venture to say there's a 'Gothic' tint to this album. Although, to be honest, I wouldn't really know one end of the 'Gothic' Doom scene from the other. (I do like Draconian's 'Arcane Rain Fell', if that counts). But the emotions of loss and grief are present, as a quick glance at song titles 'Dying Kinship', 'Swan Song' and 'The Shattering' will tell you, and there's some superb music on offer here, born from those shadowy emotions.

Production wise, fans of latter day Funeral will most likely approve of the beefy, crystal clear mix, as well as the excellent guitar work, lacing the album with rich, lengthy bar chords, silkily orchestrated melodic leads, and enough pinched harmonics to make Zakk Wylde blush. The Funeral comparison gains momentum when one thinks of how they embraced a more 'metallic' approach on albums like 'From These Wounds' and 'Oratorium', and thankfully in Soijl's case, there's less of the grandiosity that clouded the latter of those releases. The Anathema influence is evident when the vocal delivery is varied from growls to clean and then into purposefully spoken word. Musically, just listen to 'Swan Song' and bask in it's reverence to the likes of 'Crestfallen' and 'Sleep in Sanity'.

Despite the aforementioned scarcity of keyboards and other possible instrumentation there is a distinct variance of sound within the music, albeit a subtle one. Pace shifts from prevalent funereal and slower passages to faster, more aggressive segments. Cleaner, more open guitar lines morph into majestic sounding chords and up their gears into quicker riffage reminiscent of certain elements from mid-period My Dying Bride. As previously noted, the vocals are anything but one dimensional, although they perhaps sound a touch generic when they start to stradle the borders between Death and Black metal.

Overall a more than decent listen. I've been going about my daily business and found certain lines and motifs reverberating around my head, and that hasn't happened for a while. Not much of a recommendation perhaps but still. There's plenty of stuff like this out there. (There's quite a lot of it on Solitude Productions truth be told). But not all of it is as good as this, and it's even on Spotify...but you will have to search for it...

Author: Matt Halsey

Review
Merchants of Air
22.09.2015

Whenever an email mentions the words 'atmospheric' and 'doom', my long-haired nineties alter ego suddenly interupts his hibernation. His eyes opens a little bit while my finger clicks on the link. Between his sleepy eyelids he sees more interesting words, 'Saturnus' and 'Skald', two bands he's been a fan of for quite some time now. At that point, he completely takes over, demands the album to be played while he raises his horned fists to the majestic sound.

Yes, Soijl is the newest project by ex-Saturnus member Mattias Svensson. He started this solo-act in 2008 already but it wasn't until 2014 that Soijl became something serious. By then Henrik Kindvall of Skold joined in, taking care of vocals and lyrics. Now the duo released their stunning debut upon the masses, re-introducing the atmospheric approach to doom metal in a highly convincing way. The hibernating doom kid inside of me secretly hopes this will be followed by live performances.

The album opens with title track 'Endless Elysian Fields', immediately showing what this project stands for. Slow but melodic guitars and a wide array of drums form the foundations for the deep growls and often blackened screams to thrive upon. Although the tempo is quite sluggish, there's still a decent amount of energy, mostly coming from the brilliant use of drums and percussion. I especially like the double bass drums used on this album as they provide a droning element which I simply can't resist.

'Dying Kinship' takes the same elements and adds layers of guitars. It's because of music like this that I ended up listening to funeral doom, post-rock and drone music, but it's always great to return to this kind of melodic doom metal. Bands like My Dying Bride, Anathema, November's Doom and Doom:VS often come to mind when I listen to these tracks. It breathes the same atmosphere of solitude, despair and impending agony. What's more, Soijl even succeeds in translating the genre into a version that works quite well in the present day doom scene where bands like Pallbearer roam.

And Soijl isn't even done there. In a way, this duo also succeeded in bringing in a few depressive black metal elements. Once in a while, especially when the blackened vocals take the upperhand, the whole thing takes a twist towards a bleak, eerie atmosphere. Minimal but effective use of keyboards enhance that atmosphere, making 'Swan Song' a bit of a masterpiece actually. 'The Formation Of A Black Nightsky' takes that even a bit further, and faster, and is my favorite track on this splendid piece of work.

I only mentioned four songs in this review and there's still three more to come, but I'm not going into a song-by-song thing with this one. By now it should be clear that this albums comes highly recommended. It's a welcome addition to any collection where the bands I mentioned in this review are present. There's plenty of variation, melody and intensity to remain interesting for a few consecutive listens, that's for sure. So I'm going to let that long-haired doom kid enjoy this one a little more.

Author: Serge

Review
Metal.de
7/10
08.10.2015

Obwohl es sich bei "Endless Elysian Fields" um das Debütalbum von SOIJL handelt und sich die Band aus Karlskrona, Schweden somit erstmals auf der metallischen Landkarte zeigt, stellt sich ob der ambitionierten Produktion und erdrückenden Schwere recht schnell der Eindruck ein, dass hier bei Leibe keine Anfänger am Werke sind. So verwundert es dann auch nicht wirklich, dass sich mit Mattias Svensson ein alter Bekannter für den musikalischen Anteil von "Endless Elysian Fields" verantwortlich zeigt. Einzig für den Gesang holte sich der bereits für diverse Bands wie VANMAKT, ISTAPP oder SATURNUS aktive Musiker Unterstützung in Form von Hendrik Kindvall (u.a. SKALD). Zusammen musizierten diese beiden bereits bei NIDRIKE – man kennt sich, was sich auch an der ausgeprägten Reife des ersten Langspielers von SOIJL zeigt.

Als grobe Orientierung darf das letzte Werk "Saturn In Ascension" von SATURNUS dienen, nach dem Mattias Svensson die dänischen Doomer allerdings nach zweijähriger Zusammenarbeit verließ. Allerdings ist "Endless Elysian Fields" zwar durchgängig in doomigen Gefilden unterwegs, fährt aber nie die ganz langsame Schiene, die auf dem zuvor genannten Werk oftmals anzutreffen ist. Vielmehr wird sogar wie z.B. in "Drifter, Trickster" vereinzelnd die Doublebass eingesetzt – wenn natürlich auch an das generelle Tempo angeglichen. Die Verbindung aus einem abgrundtiefen, dunklen Fundament und den in den Songs federführenden, prägnanten und teils herzerwärmenden Lead-Melodien erzeugt eine wohlige Atmosphäre, die sich durch das gesamte Werk zieht. Aufgrund dieser und der ausgewogenen Balance funktioniert "Endless Elysian Fields" auch über die gesamte Spielzeit von einer knappen Stunde, was hinzukommend auch darauf zurückzuführen ist, dass SOIJL immer mal wieder das Tempo (z.B. "Dying Kinship" und "The Formation Of A Black Nightsky") leicht anziehen und so der reinen Monotonie bzw. Langeweile eine deutliche Absage erteilen. Auch Hendrik Kindvall macht seinen Job mehr als ordentlich: Ob fies keifend ("Swan Song"), mit Sprechgesang in "The Cosmic Cold" oder, wie auf dem Großteil des Albums, düster growlend, verleiht der Schwede den Songs zusätzlich Tiefe.

Darüber hinaus wurden einige Textverse weise gesetzt (z.B. "Life Is Lost" im Titeltrack), sodass man nicht umhin kommt in einem eher trägen Genre wie dem atmosphärischen Doom von einer richtigen Hookline zu sprechen. Wie dem auch sei, eine wirklich starke Platte, die zwar nichts wirklich Neues mit sich bringt, aber dennoch zu überzeugen weiß. Abgesehen davon, kann auch das stimmungsvolle Artwork überzeugen, welches von Roman Corvinus (u.a. AURA HIEMIS, FRAILTY, INNER MISSING und WINE FROM TEARS) entworfen wurde. Ein rundum gelungenes Debüt.

Author: Jonas Kemme