When you hear the first notes of the opening track of "12 Ablaze" you would probably think "The Elysian Fields" originate from Sweden. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although they posses the distinctive Swedish melodic death metal sound, this threesome is actually from warm and sunny Greece. But that doesn’t make their music any sunnier. "The Elysian Fields" combine melodic and bombastic orchestral sounds with aggressive Swedish death and thus create a balanced misanthropic, epical atmosphere. They do this in such a way that it never sounds forced; some other atmospheric bands may force the blast beats in their music because it’s trendy, but with "The Elysian Fields" it’s an essential and integral part of the music. The actual songs are easy to grasp as the level of composition is not really that high.

The chords are kept in well-known positions without really dramatic mode-changes, which is a pity because that would really add to the melancholy atmosphere. The guitar-riffs also tend to sound somewhat familiar. Productionwise I would also have chosen to humanize the orchestral sounds; in some songs they sound too much as if they were programmed. The album as a whole is solid; all the songs are well suited and the balance of the album is just right, making it dynamic and epic. "12 Ablaze" is an improvement over "We...The Enlightened", but in my opinion it could have been even better with the use of more acoustical instrument instead of the programmed keys and drums; the mythological melodies would have really stood out.