Peace - not war!

If we take into account the format of the medium, then “Peace - not War!” Might not be the first musical release of the group, released on DVD . In 2005-2006, “Elysium” worked with some interruption to create its own so-called “ home video ”, which, however, was never shown to a wide audience due to “extremely obscene content”. Moreover, the nameless DVD with “home video” was not a concert recording, but a montage from concert fragments, reports, cases from the life of the band’s musicians and submitted fan works ^{[3] [4] [5]} . The Elysium’s first video album could be the Rainbow Live DVD , based on a concert in honor of the band’s 11th anniversary in November 2006, but this was only an amateur video , and the release of this DVD, originally scheduled for autumn 2007, took only a year later ^{[6] [7] [8]} . The shooting of the concert on December 9, 2007 at the “ B1 Maximum ” club, dedicated to the 12th anniversary of “Elysium” and which served as the basis for the DVD “Peace - not War!”, Was already professional: several video cameras were involved in it at different points a concert hall, and the sound of each musical instrument was separately recorded using a mixing console ^{[9] [10]} .

The concert at the B1 Maximum club lasted about three and a half hours, during which the Elysium group performed about 50 of their songs. The DVD was released in April 2008, which included more than 30 recorded tracks, the group announced almost immediately ^[11] . The video album was named after the new song performed at the concert, “Peace - Not War!”. Played in heavy guitar riffs with reggae elements, the song belonged to the theme of social problems taken by the group and later entered the studio album dedicated to them 13 . “Despite the fact that there are always many positive aspects and situations around us, we should not forget that not everything on our planet is so joyful. Unfortunately, there are still places on Earth where people are starving or where war is going on. In this song we want to tell everyone that war is one of the most terrible events that happen in life! ”(Kirill Krylov, guitarist of“ Elysium ”) ^[12] . Among the songs of the DVD “Peace is not War!” There is also a solo performance by drummer of Elysium Alexei Kuznetsov. Following the concert program, the list of compositions of the video album is indirectly divided into three acts, the second of which is highlighted by tracks from the 16th to the 21st, played in an acoustic style ^[10] .

The presentation of their first professional video album, the group Elysium held a concert on Cosmonautics Day on April 12, 2008 at the Moscow club "Shadow". The music portal NEWSmuz.com believes that the participants in Elysium are as close as possible so that the presentation of the DVD “Peace is not War!” Recreated the atmosphere of the celebration of their 12th anniversary in the club “B1 Maximum”, bringing the three-hour performance closer to the set list of that concert and dividing it into two “electric” and one acoustic sections ^[13] . Together with the presentation, this day also marked the beginning of sales of the video album. The DVD “Peace - Not War!” Was released by the 2 + 2 = 5 label in the digipack box, complete with a CD with an audio version of the concert recording in “B1” ^[14] . “On“ DVD World - Not War / Live in B1 “we want to show our vision of a rock concert: the level of return, energy exchange between fans and musicians, the quality of the program of the performance and, of course, the sincerity of our work” (Alexander Telekhov, vocalist Elysium) ^[13] .

Sergey Sosedov, the author of the review on the multi-portal KM.RU , considers the music of the video album “Peace is not war!” Youthful and eclectic , defining the performance style as grunge with elements of the styles of hard-n-heavy , hardcore , power pop . Some songs from the video album reminded the neighbors of Foo Fighters and Nirvana . Sergei finds delightful the genuine enthusiasm and courage of the musicians and the diction of vocalist Alexander Telekhov, and wrote about the play of trumpeter Alexander Komarov that she gives the music of Elysium light sadness and nostalgia. “It is rare that after listening to a particular disc there is a feeling of lightness and inner freedom. This album is undoubtedly from this series. And if you determine the place of the collective on our rock scene, then it is thought to be somewhere close to such grandees of the genre as “ DDT ”, “ Time Machine ”, “ ChayF ”, “ Splin ” and others. ” Sergey Sosedov considers the melodic monotony of his songs to be the only minus of Elysium’s work (“I recall a saying about“ baked pancakes ””) ^[1] .

Denis Stupnikov, in his review of the largest Russian music portal NEWSmuz.com, expressed that the concert at “B1 Maximum” was shot without any frills, which, however, does not prevent the DVD footage from fully focusing on the atmosphere of the concert. Stupnikov appreciated Alexei Kuznetsov’s drum solo, the dances of the rest of the Elysium members on stage and the work of vocalist Alexander Telekhov, who, in addition to the performances themselves, communicates well with the audience, without taking a lot of time between songs. In addition, the reviewer drew attention to the stage fire show arranged by the group, which was contrary to the requirements of the administration of the B1 club. Stupnikov also believes that at this concert Elysium managed to maintain a balance between the supply of new and old songs, given that the concert also sounded socially oriented songs of the group, including all compositions from the maxi-single “ Target Children / Children the killers ” ^[2] .

Performers ^[15]

• Dmitry "Dracol" Kuznetsov - bass ;
• Cyril "Kira" Krylov - guitar , backing vocals ;
• Alexey "Younger" Kuznetsov - drums , percussion ;
• Alexander "Komar" Komarov - pipe ;
• Egor Baranov - cello ;
• Alexander "Propeller" Telekhov - vocals , acoustic guitar .

Production ^[15]

• The organizer of the concert is Vladimir Danilov;
• Mixing , mastering - Sergey Mishankin, Gost Records studio ( Nizhny Novgorod );
• Cover, design - Marina Fedoseeva ^[16] , Nikitin Kirill.