The ‘next big thing’ comes from Austria and is called Elfman, if you can believe their record company Wait And Bleed Records. Common Sky is their first release since they were founded somewhere during the summer of 2000. Whilst establishing a larger fanbase, by playing a lot of shows, they met their present manager and producer Peter Böhm.

The first song “Why Don’t You Say” begins with a typical Watcha and (Hed) P.E. sound: a groovy and melodic yet aggressive sound with a lot of programmed samples and scratching with a nice and clean production. Nothing new you’d say: just another nice band that copies their American colleagues. This comparison won’t hold long though. Song by song they seem to evolve. Every song has its surprising elements.

Sometimes you’ll hear Limp Bizkit, sometimes KoRn, but always with a strange Elfman twist. “Glory D” (even Tool comes to mind) and “Sail Away” are examples of their surprising arrangements.

Varga Oliver, their singer, reminds me a lot of Jonathan Davis. I am not very fond of this whining type of singing, but you’ll probably get used to it when you listen to it more carefully.

Elfman takes all the successful ingredients of their popular colleagues and fuses them into a really nice, diverse and fresh mix that will hopefully bring them some deserved attention. Maybe the album as a whole lacks identity, but if you like this variety of poppy metalbands you definitely need to check out this band!