Now here’s a band, whose name fits - Eternal Elysium is heavenly stoner doom metal that reaches realms of Sabbathy paradise thus far untouched by their Western world counterparts.  You see Eternal Elysium hail from Japan, not a country most people link as synonymous with obese, oppressive guitar riffing, churning leads that reek of dirty blues, or stinging, emotive wailing vocals.  Spiritualized is simply a masterpiece of doom; why it has gotten little attention just baffles the mind.  Every single track is traditional, in your face 70’s doom, dripping with oblique Sabbath, St. Vitus, Trouble and Fu Manchu attributes.  Take Sabbath’s Master of Reality, Penance’s Parallel Corners, Cathedral’s Soul Sacrifice, Fu Manchu’s In Search Of... and any early Trouble release, fuse them together with Electric Wizard and serve blisteringly hot.  Most bands lack Elysium’s musical audacity, unadulterated heaviness, and ability to capture true rock spirit, as they are usually too busy trying to look or sound cool; Electric Wizard being the only worthy exception.  This is a serious musical purging, folks.  Even genre leaders like Cathedral, need to take a few pointers from the dynamic sonic wall built on the Paranoid-like blues of "Trick or Steal," or the sluggish charm of "Floating Downer." The vocals are faint and familiar, see opener "W.T.G.B," but somehow impossible to place, yet they are unimportant in the sonic warzone, explored on Spiritualized.  The punkish, "Stone Wedge," could have been snatched off an old Fu Manchu, or C.O.C. record, while "Easygoin’" stirs up memories of "Fairies Wear Boots," minus Ozzy, of course.  Iron Maiden’s classic, "Innocent Exile," is fuzzed-up and tuned down, in a brave, surprisingly competent rendition on the album.  Yet, it is the closing pair of instrumentals that push the musical boundaries of the Doom genre to new heights.  First is a bastard child of England’s two prominent 90’s doom bands, "Faithful ’99," which sounds like Cathedral performing a punishing rocker, co-penned by My Dying Bride circa Turn Loose the Swans or Angel And the Dark River.  It’s virtually unexplainable to deprived ears, as is the haunting, unnamed final track.  A quiet, 14-minute piece of traditional Japanese composing, the song recalls the nation's greatest - and possibly the world’s were it not for his unfortunate obscurity - composer, Toru Takemitsu.  Takemitsu gained recognition in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s as an abstract film composer, who scored for the likes of Akira Kurosawa and several other famous filmmakers.  Combining Western classical music with traditional Japanese flutes, percussion instruments, and other strange items, he created an ambient, eerie soundscape, thus far, unmatched in classical recording’s history (trust me check him out, if you are looking for dark classical music).  This final hidden track is a brilliant tribute to a true genius of 20th Century music, showing a mature, vulnerable and musically introspective side to the band, which they kept hidden throughout the course of the first nine songs.  What a breathtakingly beautiful end, to an amazingly punishing, masterpiece of an album.
[Jason Hundey]