siLLy puPPy Although emerging from the tiny nation state of Liechtenstein sandwiched between Austria and Switzerland, the gothic symphonic metal band ELIS found popularity all over the German speaking world and is unfortunately most remembers as the band that experienced the sudden collapse and premature death of its lead vocalist Sabine Dünser, an event which almost ended the band’s existence. Originally starting out as Erben der Schöpfung with keyboardist Oliver Falk, guitarist Pete Strait and vocalist Sabine Dünser, the band released its first single called “Elis” in 2001 as well as a couple albums before adding guitarist Jürgen Broger, drummer Frankie Keller and bassist Tom Saxer. It’s at this point the band pulled the ole switcheroo with its namesake and became ELIS.

Enjoying a healthy live circuit career, the band most famously performed at the Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig which got its unique take on gothic metal noticed by the German press. The band only existed for an eleven year run and put out four albums starting with this debut GOD’S SILENCE, DEVIL’S TEMPTATION which came out in 2003 on the Napalm Record label. The band’s name is associated with the poem “An den Knaben Elis” by Georg Trakl which was Sabina’s favorite poet. After the recording of this album the band found all over Europe and immediately captivated the audiences with its energetic gothic metal sound that mixed with symphonic backing and bought to life by Dünser’s captivating vocals.

In many ways ELIS sounds like a typical female fronted goth metal band only more in the symphonic realms of Xandria, Nightwish, After Forever or Epica only without any trace of the power metal aspects that symphonic metal usually employs. ELIS delivered a darker sound with strong melodic grooves led by the female vocals and occasional joined in by the beauty and beast effect of growly male vocals. This album is dominated by crunchy guitar riffing joined by a predominance of eerie atmospheric keyboard embellishments. Lyrics are mostly in English but the track “Sie Erfasst Mein Herz” is in German. The band does a good job at keeping its mood setting in the realms of the worth of gothic metal with the symphonic elements adding a certain expansion of the band’s style.

All in all GOD’S SILENCE, DEVIL’S TEMTATION is a decent slice of symphonic goth metal and pretty much a continuation of style that was delivered on the Urban der Schöpfung albums. The tracks are all melodically beautiful as are Dünser’s elegant soft sung vocals. Beautiful piano runs, turbulent atmospheric keyboard runs and twin guitar heft work together to keep the music from becoming too aggressive or too sugary pop sweet. The one downfall of the band is that it lacks a true originality and is clearly following in the footsteps of the aforementioned influences however ELIS pulled it all off fairly well with just enough differences to make this debut not sound like a total clone of bands like Epica. Overall a decent album although not one that exactly makes me want to run out and purchase it at any cost as this style of goth metal has showcased a multitude of similar variations throughout the decades. Nice to know a tiny nation like Liechtenstein has yielded some worthy bands to explore.