This could be a really short review. Dutch metal group Elegy started in 1986 and still sound like they did 16 years ago. Ah, that should be powermetal, according to the sleeve. No matter, it still clearly sounds very eighties-like. Not that that is a bad thing, though. All the songs on Principles of Pain are well composed and offer a wide variety of tempos, riffs and stuctures. But still in that very recognisable eghties manner. That includes many double-bass drum riffs, very catchy guitar choppy thingies and high pitched vocals, multiple if possible, of course. Or, as the promo puts it, “stays in a Progressive Powermetal style. The album contains 2 ballads, 2 neo-classical uptempo double bass drum tracks, a slow heavy metal guitar riff theme with a great groove, and many mid-tempo melodic metal tracks, with catchy choruslines”.

Sounds like a thing from a menu to me, put like this. Maybe the album needs a bit more credit than this, though. The album is very nicely produced, the songs are well played and recorded. It has a nice balance, the vocals can be well understood, which is not always the case. What can I add to this? Not much. You either love it or you don’t. You may have guessed that i am not really a fan of the genre, but if you are, this album is definitely something to at least listen to once. It is not bad at all, however you do need to like the stuff.