Elysia

There are at least three artists with this name: 1) Named for the final resting place of warriors, thinkers and great statesmen in Greek Mythology, the Sacramento, CA based Elysia create epic battle hymns for the Deathcore set. Excessively brutal but socially conscious, vocalist Zak Vargas espouses on society’s ills from a youthful viewpoint. "I try to write on what is going on in the world and in our lives but from how a kid views it. I think that’s why a lot of people connect with us instead of me writing solely about personal relationships." Seeing things through a kid’s eyes is not much of a stretch for the eighteen year old Vargas who just graduated high school as well as the rest of the band which includes sixteen year old Danny Lomeli. Though the band plays "metal," they consider themselves to have the attitude of a hardcore band in their live performances leaning heavily on audience interaction to create the spirit that their "punk" heroes did. Forming four years ago Elysia was originally a recreational outlet from high school where they could live out their scene, hardcore fantasies. "We definitely sucked back then" Vargas admits "Our first show was playing for all of our friends and it went over better than it should have." From there the band chipped away at their own identity while playing shows repeatedly. "Back then the Sacramento scene was composed of a lot of older folks, so we were these kids banging away and not getting much acceptance at first. Eventually all those older kids phased out and a new scene built up behind us." Playing regionally around Northern California the band began to carve a name for themselves playing mini-tours with bands like Impending Doom and Molotov Solution. "It sounds weird but we built a following and never really played with any sizable bands, it was us playing for locally based bands and their friends and they turned on to us and told their friends and it built from there." Their draw in the Golden State currently is as high as 400 kids for headlining shows. Self-releasing their debut full-length Masochist in 2006 the band did a west coast tour with KillWhitneyDead and just completed their first national tour with With Blood Comes Cleansing, Arsonists Get All The Girls and Knights Of The Abyss. Inking a brand new deal with Ferret Music the band is set to enter God City Studios in Salem, MA with Kurt Ballou (Converge) this December with a new album to surface in 2008. 2) A female pop singer who released the CD's Feels Like and What's the Meaning. 3) A German band that released the album Spirit of the Sun. The songs under "Listen Now", "Elysium" and "Come The Night" are from this band. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.