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In the autumn of 2004 the album was finally remixed, remastered and reissued in a quite different version which is actually more atune with what my intentions were in the very beginning. The soundscape is vastly improved and though some five bonustracks have been removed, the once excluded hidden track is now available for the first time. The wonderful opus and its' greatly conceptual nature provides much more of an impact with the reissue so for me personally, this is the real official version whilst the first edition (-though of great historical value) was more of a starting point. I guess the extremely eyecatching artwork ("Under the Blues") by master artist Luis Royo escapes noone. I was rather surprised that it was not licensed earlier by some other band since it is - in my opinion - one if the very best works the artist has done so far. As is common on most Elvira Madigan releases each song tends to melt into each other and this album is no exception. It is probably the most unified album I have done due to the heavy use of the same handful melodies throughout several songs. It is not conceptual regarding the lyrics thought, although the topic of the words flirt rather heavily around the "Black Arts" and rituals of the evil craft. I do however manage not to take a certain standpoint as I do believe satanism should be viewed upon as nothing else than a very intruiging philosophy. And I do feel that practising rituals is just as silly be it Christendom, Judaism, Satanism or any other organized religion. So this album probably provides more of my personal opinions and views upon these things disguised in fairytales than any other EM album. Anyway, compared to the only album prior to this (which is the "Elvira Madigan" debut) the introduction of heavier, more melodic, and perhaps more accessible songs is rather striking. To get a copy of the first edition version of this CD one needs to check out the "Buy CD!" section. The re-issued version should be available in any local CD-store. |
