ELEGY FOR EULISZA, demo 2005 (2005, demo)

The skull:
Alas, poor Eulisza! I knew her, Horatio. Like, in the biblical sense. She hath borne me on her back a thousand times, you know what I’m saying? Woof! And now she’s dead, gross. Here hung those lips that I kissed I know not how oft. With tongue, all the way! Where be your good vibes now? Now get you to my old lady’s chamber and tell her, let her cut a line an inch thick, with that party favor she must come! Aw yeah.

The music:
I can’t be sure I’ve actually heard anything from this demo, but two of the tracks on Myspace (which still exists, believe it or not, and is an invaluable time capsule for us Friars who are occasionally tasked with sampling the least noteworthy bands of the mid 2000s) are dated from 2005, so let’s just assume they were released on the demo in question. Judging from those, Elegy for Eulisza were a not-entirely-terrible melodic death metal band, kind of like a sloppy throwback to early Dark Tranquillity. Their singer, however, is entirely terrible, an inarticulate screamer whose voice might also be distorted by effects. There’s something refreshing in hearing a band attempt rather complex music without incredible precision – nowadays, just about any mistake can be fixed after the fact at even cheap (or home) studios, but I guess in 2005, these guys didn’t have the time or budget to corrections (which reminds me, again, of early Dark Tranquillity, whose music was just a bit too hard for them to play perfectly.) The two later songs on Myspace, from 2007, sound almost like a different band. Though they retain some of the noodly MDM of the 2005 demo, most of the music is instead more like crusty grind. The band may or may not still be together, but it probably doesn’t matter, because they’re clearly not going anywhere.
— Friar Johnsen