Dark Clouds in a Perfect Sky

Dark Clouds in a Perfect Sky

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Elis' debut album caused quite a commotion in 2003: God's Silence... was a triumphant, strategic advance that undoubtedly continues with the quintet's new opus, Dark Clouds in a Perfect Sky. The CD displays superb, rich and varied Gothic Metal, with a heavy and occasional ballad-like edge. Altogether a deep and entertaining album - a new star in the "perfect sky".

Tracks:

Der Letzte Tag
Anger
Lost Soul
Perfect Love
Heart In Chains
Die Zeit
Black Angel
Devil Inside You
Rebirth
Are You Missing Me
Ballade
Show Me Heaven (bonus track)

Album Description

Elis' debut album caused quite a commotion in 2003: God's Silence... was a triumphant, strategic advance that undoubtedly continues with the quintet's new opus, Dark Clouds in a Perfect Sky. The CD displays superb, rich and varied Gothic Metal, with a heavy and occasional ballad-like edge. Altogether a deep and entertaining album - a new star in the "perfect sky".

Customer Reviews:

VERY VERY GOOD CD.......2007-05-22

Goth-metal, straight up rock with a female singer with the voice of a goddess. The first song on this CD, sung in the band's native tongue (German), is incredible. The remainder of the CD is very well crafted and the female vocalist is/was incredibly, incredibly talented. When I heard she had died at age 29, I was really saddened. What a loss to the world of music. Out of all the female vocalists I've heard over the years, this girl had it going on. I love her voice,layered and backed by throbbing rock and roll. Gracious, mesmerizing. Please don't let her death deter you from purchasing this CD. I highly recommend it. Add it to your collection. You won't be disappointed.

Are you missing me.......2006-07-13

I am not a big fan of heavy metal. I hated the '80s hair metal scene when I was in high school. I hated the nu metal schtick of the late '90s, early '00s. The only metal genre I enjoy is the gothic metal genre which has been around longer than Evanescence (who contrary to what some people might think, did not originate the goth metal sound...The Gathering is credited for creating the goth metal sound).

One of my favorite goth metal bands who I think have never really been recognized is the german band Elis. I discovered Elis accidently in the back pages of Outburn magazine (when it was STILL cool). I immediately went out to purchase the band's 2nd album "Dark Clouds in a Perfect Sky". There is a definite resemblence of Leaves' Eyes Liv Kristine in the voice of Sabine Duenser. Both women share that same delicate voice. The music is though a lot more aggressive IMO. The aggressive guitar riffs compliments Sabine's angelic vocals. A lot of that credit goes to producer Alexander Krull (Atrocity), Liv's husband. His production abilities are immaculate. His work on Elis' album as well as with his wife's albums are perfectly crisp and clean without being overly produced.

Some of the stand out tracks on "Dark Clouds in a Perfect Sky" are the ballads. "Perfect Love" and "Ballade" has that perfect combination of melody and sorrow without losing out that aggressive edge. I absolutely love working out to the aggressive track "Anger" or if I lose my temper, I often crank up this song and start taking out my anger to this song. Elis's sound may not be terribly original but they certainly know how to keep the goth metal genre from becoming bland and predictable.

It deeply saddens me to note mention this news. The heavy metal scene has lost one of its own. Elis lead singer Sabine Duenser recently passed away not even a week ago due to a cerebal hemorrage. This young woman had shown a lot of promise and had a bright future. You were loved and will be forever missed. RIP Sabine :(.

Review.......2006-06-15

Elis, a Liechtenstein-based 5-piece band began as "Erben Der Schöpfung" & they released their debut, "Twilight" in 2001. Vocalist Sabine Duenser and guitarist Pete Streit continued working together and Erben Der Schopfung morphed into Elis. They released their debut, "Gods Silence Devils Temptation" in 2003 to very good reviews, and quickly followed with "Dark Clouds in a Perfect Sky" in February 2004. Their style of music is most often considered goth metal, but Elis incorporate electronics, doom, and rock into their music for a rather eclectic sound.

Following the path of bands like Lacuna Coil, Leaves' Eyes, Darkwell, Lacrimosa & The Gathering, ELIS is trying to find a place for themselves in the world of Gothic music, and with Dark Clouds in a Perfect Sky, they succeeded in doing just that.

Let's start with the Album Cover Artwork. Vocalist Sabine Duenser says : "The picture with the butterfly is a symbol for the album title and so it is also a symbol for the message we want to give to the listener. There's this perfect butterfly, which is a picture of a real but dead butterfly- which is brutally speared on the sky. On the first look the picture just seems nice but when you have a closer look at it you see that it is not as nice as it seemed. The title Dark Clouds in a Perfect Sky stands for the fact that in this world there exists nothing which is perfect. Everything, even when it seems to be perfect, has also a dark and ugly side. People only can be rich, because many people are poor. We like it when the sun shines but it has the power to burn everything. The nature can be very nice but on the other hand it can destroy lives with its power. So the title is a metaphor of our music, which also combines these dark and soft elements, and the lyrics which are about this contrast between good and bad. Also in a perfect sky there can appear dark clouds." [ from an interview with www.basementbar.com (Transcending the Mundane). ]

Upon first listen to Dark Clouds in A Perfect Sky, one may get the impression lead singer Sabine Duenser might be taking one too many nods from ex-Theatre of Tragedy vocalist and current Leaves' Eyes frontwoman, Liv Kristine. When you realize Liv Kristine is also the wife of Elis producer and manager Alexander Krull, the comparison might make a little more sense.
This is not really the case, though both vocalists do share similarities in their approach. They both can, and will pull out a booming soprano when needed or lull you into a mid-tempo trance.

There are 3 tracks in the band's native language, German : Der Letzte Tag (the last day) / Ballade (ballad) / Die Zeit (it's time). The other songs are Anger / Lost Soul / Heart in Chains / Perfect Love / Black Angel / Devil Inside You / Rebirth / Are You Missing Me / Show Me Heaven (Bonus Cut on Digipak Release)..Emotions range fom anger (guess which song that focuses on... ) , to love (Perfect Love) , to something we all have tendency to do, thinking too much (Are You Missing Me).

Der Letzte Tag , the album opener is bombastic with even an epic solo from Pete Streit near the conclusion. It's just how an opening track should be. Bassist Tom Saxer is featured on a couple of songs, where his extremely capable growl lends itself to the subject matter ("Lost Soul", "Heart in Chains", "Are You Missing Me").

All in all , this was an amazing listening experience. I enjoyed each & every song. However, I found myself trailing back to Black Angel , Show me Heaven , and Perfect Love..repeating them again & again...

Overall rating of the Album : 9/10

I like it.......2006-06-11

Frankly, with all the rather blah reviews here on Amazon it took me a while to get around to this cd, but when I listened to the samples I realized that it sounded very good -- and now that I have it and I've listened to it a few times I'm not really sure why so many people (well, 3 anyway) said that it was uninspired and unmemorable. I think it's much better than that, so I had to write a review.

Now, I'll admit, I'd be the first to say that if you're just getting into this kind of music, you should probably listen to Nightwish, Leaves' Eyes, Within Temptation first. Maybe Lacuna Coil too, I don't own any of them but enough people seem to like them. But if you really like this style of goth metal then this is a very good cd. Read what the official Amazon reviewer said, listen to the samples, and see for yourself.

I like it a great deal more than, say, Epica or After Forever, for example....

Hopefully the future is kind to Elis.......2006-01-26

3.5 stars

I discovered Elis completely by accident. I only bought this CD because I knew it was a female fronted the band and I thought the title of the CD was intriguing, luckily I didn't expect much on first listen. Sabine doesn't have the strongest voice you'll ever hear, she pretty much has the same vocal pattern for each song actually and the death growls, while good, don't fit at all. So a lot of the time it's the band pulling most of the weight.

My big issue with Dark Clouds In A Perfect Sky is that the songs don't have much variety. In fact, the only song that really stands apart from the others to me is Devil Inside You. I think every other song tries much too hard to be groundbreaking. Take Heart In Chains, there are some very good parts in the track, but the death metal growls and some of Sabine's vocals kind of ruin it. The closing song, Ballade, despite being performed completely in a foreign language, is the other strong track. It seems simplicity is key to this band making good music. Devil Inside You is pretty intricate, but I just think Elis shines on ballad-type songs.

My two favorite songs are Devil Inside You and Ballade. There's so much potential in this CD, but it doesn't seem Elis tried to capture it and use it to their advantage. If they want to be compared to a band as truly amazing as Nightwish, then they better step their game way up.