Named for the final resting place of warriors in Roman Mythology, the Sacramento, CA based Elysia create epic battle hymns for the metal and hardcore set. On Lion Of Judas, excessively brutal but socially conscious vocalist Zak Vargas espouses on society s ills from a youthful viewpoint. Starting the band when he was fifteen, Zak has literally grown up in Elysia and he says it shows on their forthcoming album to be released this summer on Ferret Music. When we first started we got comments about our first demos as being misogynistic and I think this record shows how we ve grown as people and adults in the musicianship and lyrics. We have a two part song on the album that talks about woman s rights and values, which I felt was important to address in our music.
Initally forming five years ago Elysia was originally a recreational outlet from high school where they could live out their hardcore fantasies. We definitely sucked back then Vargas admits Our first show was playing for all of our friends and it went over better than it should have. From there the band chipped away at their own identity while playing shows repeatedly. Back then the Sacramento scene was composed of a lot of older folks, so we were these kids banging away and not getting much acceptance at first. Eventually all those older kids phased out and a new scene built up behind us.
The band recorded with Kurt Ballou (Converge) at God City Studios in Salem, MA. Zak comments We were very excited to work with Kurt, I can t imagine going with anyone else for this album. Recording all new material written right up until they went into the studio Zak says We ve been playing some of these new songs live and some people have said it s music that moves you emotionally. Though we weren t directly influenced while writing the music, listening to it now it reminds me of Converge s material on the Poacher Diaries split in that it s brutal and composed but also very emotionally charged. In addition to the socially minded songs a theme of the upcoming album is betrayal and very personal. I write about losing relationships but not just with friends but about losing a relationship with God like on our song Lion Of Judas.
Though the band plays metal, they consider themselves to have the attitude of a hardcore band in their live performances leaning heavily on audience interaction to create the spirit that their punk heroes did. The band have recently toured with everyone from This Is Hell to The Warriors and will be co-headlining the Ferret Young Guns tour with See You Next Tuesday, Knights Of The Abyss, The Banner and A Girl A Gun A Ghost.
