ELIXIR THE SON OF ODIN NEW NEVER PLAYED WITH INSERTS PRIVATE INDIE ELIXIR # 2

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92

 DOMESTIC SHIPPING $ 5.00 AND $ 2.00 EACH ADDITIONAL RECORD SENT WITH TRACKER FOREIGN SHIPPING $ 16.00 AND $5.00 EACH ADDITIONAL RECORD.NOW I`M SELLING A BUNCH OF SEALED OR UNPLAYED RECORDS.THE UNPLAYED RECORDS ARE FOREIGN PRESSING WHICH WERE NEVER SEALED. ALL RECORDS HAVE BEEN STORED IN PLASTIC MYLARS SINCE PURCHASED. THEY WERE STORED IN A CLEAN ROOM DRY AND WITH IDEAL CONDITIONS. THEY LOOK LIKE THEY WERE JUST PURCHASED. I BOUGHT ALL THESE RECORDS WHEN THEY FIRST CAME OUT, SO YOU HAVE ORIGINAL PRESSINGS.   IF YOU CHECK MY SELLERS FEEDBACK YOU WILL SEE I SOLD MANY OLDER RECORDS IN 2010 AND 2012 MOSTLY SEALED WITH PERFECT FEED BACK. Here we have the first album from a late-period NWOBHM band with epic traditional heavy metal influences and dual-guitar-harmony sections. We have a lot of  heavy metal influences, with a good dose of epic to boot. As the title of this review states, The Son of Odin sounds a hell of a lot like Omen in many places, from the mid-ranged singer to a lot of the album’s overall mood. Chronologically it’s possible this isn’t a coincidence, either; Battle Cry was released two years earlier in 1984, and the boys in Elixir could’ve heard it and decided that was a direction they’d like to take. Interestingly enough, ex-Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr would join this band for their second album. I guess he liked what he heard too. The Son of Odin’s production - all the instruments are clearly audible, the mix is nice (though the voice may be a smidge over-emphasized), and the guitar tone is appropriate, though when compared to Omen’s it’s a bit tame. Minor quibbles aside, it sounds much better than it has any right to. The riffs are simple, but effective. They’re repeated quite a bit, but then again they’re good enough that it doesn’t matter that much; you want to hear them a few times before things move on. They range from the NWOBHM gallop of “Hold High the Flame”, to the traditional heavy metal pound of “Trial by Fire”, to the harmonized epic plod of the title cut. The solos really are more like half-leads most of the time (see the one at the beginning of “Pandora’s Box”), as they rarely “shred” and always stay within the confines of the music, thankfully more at the song’s service than the other way around. The drums and bass are workman-like, and pretty much do their job without standing out too much. Special mention, however, must be given to Paul Taylor, who really nails the clean, mid-range sound quite well, and sings more complicated vocal lines than most of his simple-minded NWOBHM contemporaries (with lots of drawn out oohhh’s). Multi-tracking is used sparingly; sometimes a whole song goes by without having any (as in “Starflight”), while other times it’s used to great effect (as in the title track’s chorus, or the one from “Pandora’s Box”). This is a nice relief from bands that monotonously overuse multi-tracking harmonization to hide their singer’s incompetence or to emphasize every single chorus. He also provides some really nice shrieks, as heard in “Trial by Fire” (I guess it represents the cultists who “scream as the flames grow to get higher and higher”). Incidentally the latter song also contains the only really rock-sounding riff I’ve noticed on the album (I swear I’ve heard something very similar during one of Judas Priest’s rockier moments); it pops up at right about 2:40, and only sticks around until 2:50 when it’s deformed into a noodlier, moodier version of itself, which then carries the song to its conclusion.But don’t worry, despite all my comparisons to Omen, they’re not a simple rip-off: Elixir’s sound is much less “pummeling” and “in your face” than that band’s, which reflects the album’s more desperate themes, that range in scope from the mythology of Pandora’s Box and the title cut, to the Satanic themes of “Trial by Fire”, to the science fiction of “Children of Tomorrow” and “Starflight”, to the swashbucklers of “Dead Man’s Gold”. However, despite the wide variations of lyrical subjects, the themes are the same: hopelessness and despair. “Pandora’s Box” tells the story of how she is unable to resist temptation and unleashes the evils of man upon the world; “Trial by Fire” describes Satanic sacrifices being burned alive; in “Starflight”, you’re the pilot of a starship who is lost in the endless void of space; pirates chase after the “Dead Man’s Gold”, only to find the legend was a lie and there was never a treasure in the first place.
The album’s atmosphere is both its strength and its weakness, and here we find yet another comparison to Omen; it’s got that same sort of mournful, minor-key quality to it (but is rather more laid-back than the latter’s barbarian odes). The problem is, aside from some minor variations, things stay pretty much unrelenting up to the final track, the triumphant title cut, and until then it can get a bit monotonous. The songs sometimes run together, as they sound fairly similar and don’t vary too much in tempo. But that’s not to say they get boring, because the deceptively simple riffs and vocal melodies are interesting when perceived as a whole; it’s just that before you’ve really listened to the album a few times and grasped it, the essential atmosphere can be elusive. I know I was bored of the album on my first listen, even to the point of dismissing The Son of Odin as mediocre. On the second listen, my opinion jumped, and by the third, I got to really love it; here again is another comparison to Omen, as I had a similar reaction to Battle Cry. As I said, the atmosphere is dark and oppressive for the entire album, aside from the elusive hope of “The Star of Beshaan” and “Dead Man’s Gold” that eventually turns to despair. But, at the end, the epic title cut promises a light at the end of the tunnel: