Eternal Elysium

What America creates, Japan improves: We invented the Gramophone, they produced the Home Theatre. We brought forth The Creature From The Black Lagoon, they answered with Godzilla. The latest US. casualty: Bottom-heavy riffage. Eternal Elysium has blown it all away... and thank God they did. This band is phenomenal, and they don’t play it safe. They pull from ’60s psychedelia, ’70s riff-rock jams, ’80s stadium metal, ’90s post-grunge groove, and wildly disparate cultural influences from African beats to Krautrock, culminating in a mix of space-trucking tweakiness and huge bludgeoning boulders of crunch. Acclaimed record producer Jack Endino has said, "I’d work with Eternal Elysium in a hot second, although it might be hard to improve on what I’ve heard. Their sound is outrageous!" And Endino has worked with the best in rock: He recorded Green River back when Pearl Jam was just some A&R guy’s wet dream; he recorded Soundgarden when the record industry was throwing its collective panties at the feet of Vince Neil. And guess how long before anyone smelled teen spirit he was working with Nirvana? He says Eternal Elysium is the shit. You gonna doubt him? Their new album, Share, follows hot on the heels of their globally-worshipped Y2K debut, Spiritualized D, heralded by CMJ as "The legendary Clapton-led Cream turned Satanic." And frankly, Share blows the first record away.