Back in september, my wife and I went into Greece for vacation, it had been 5 years since our last real honest to god, just chill vacations. So it was a blessing finally getting some time off (getting sacked two weeks after my return wasn't as much fun but I guess that's life). While we were going to Loutraki, a touristic charming little town near my parent's house, I received an sms from my best friend. He tells me, check Euphoreon, the best melodeath ever ! Laughing inside, I'm already thinking, well "probably a great album, but let's not go there shall we ?". When I see such a claim I immediately put my guard up and say Wintersun and Norther's debut tramps anything you can throw at me, Children of (now) Boredom first three albums after that intertwined with In Flames' trio Whoracle, Colony and Clayman. So back in the house in Greece at night after we came back from Loutraki. I go online and get the album (more on that below). Now that I've finished telling you about my old list of favorite melodeath albums, let me tell you the new list, or at the very least its new proud No 1 spot (who GOT there after 3 listens, now counting on hundred or more since then). Euphoreon !!!!!

This is hands down, no questions asked, the best melodeath album I've ever heard, and the new standard to beat in my book ! Its EASILY better than the first Wintersun (mostly cause it's constant from beginning to end, no fillers !), and god knows when we will get a second one, Jari having issues with integrating 10'000 tracks on a Mac in 64 bits or some other technical limitation that fans don't care about (AFAIC release the album already, you'll wait for the perfect number of tracks on the next one, or the one after, Wintersun should have released AT LEAST 3 albums by now !!). Anyhow, it's clear Wintersun is a source of inspiration for the band (mentionned in the booklet), but somehow it transcends the level set by its insipiration. The melodies are mind blowing, the guitars flying all over the place, the pace, ever-changing, with godly breaks that reminds me of X-Japan sometimes (cause they are so calm, pure, out of phase with the melodeath deflagration they are pausing from !). I would even go as far as to say that Euphoreon wouldn't be as good as they are if it wasn't the for the breaks. The vocals, while not as sharp as Jari's, are still excellent and cary the songs where they need to go, right into your soul ! I like the very little clean vocals when they arise, they add to the overall feeling of songs being varied, evolving, and not following the usual formula used to death in melodic metal (no pun intended) in general. The songs are powerful, brilliant, out of this world, yet smooth, with clever and awesome use of keyboards for orchestration (the living proof you don't need 100+ tracks to achieve great music). Production is quite clear but I'm sure with a bigger one Euphoreon could reach beyond stratospheric level (and the two missing points to a perfect score :) ). This album puts me in a state of eternal headbanging and pure musical orgasm, and after having listened to it at least a hundred times, I simply can't get enough of it !! Any other album would have been burned beyond recovery if it was put to so many repeats in such a little amount of time, and yet week after week, I MUST listen to this album at least once ! I can already tell you that I can't wait to hear what the band does next... Be it guitar solos, vocal melodies and catchy choruses, strong double pounding drums, fast riffing, crying guitar melody or sad piano interlude, the one thing that is certain about Euphoreon is that melody and majesty are two crafts that the band has mastered to (near) perfection ! On a debut album no less !

The album wakes in me many feelings, and at the end of the day isn't it what we look for in music ? to move us… well, mission accomplished, gloriously, majestically. Now if you go on the band's website , you will see that the band actually lets you download the album for free, which amazed me. It is clear that if we want them to release more we must support the band, and buy the album (many options available, including iTunes, I went for the digipak myself, after which you can download the album in any format you want, MP3, FLAC,... etc while you wait for your digipak to reach you, which won't take long). In the end this album is the biggest surprise in melodeath for me in this century. I know this is a bold statement, and many might disagree (we all have our own taste after all), maybe this album is tuned on my internal physiology, and what is sure is that it makes me tick like nothing else before. Maybe I'm just mad, but I don't care why or how, I'm just glad to have this in my collection (heck I would burn it all just to have this !), and I urge you to try them and see if they affect you as they did me. The one album to take on a desert island for me. If you like melodic death metal and the likes of Wintersun, you must not hesitate one milisecond and discover this incredible band now ! I voluntarily didn't enter into too much details for each songs, to keep the surprise fresh (if you are like me you are about to get your face slapped like rarely before, and I can tell you the less you know the better the surprise), and will simply re-iterate what I have said before : this is the best melodeath album ever, period !