Eternal Tears of Sorrow have been around in the Gothic/Melodic Death Metal scene since the late 80s, with their first full length released in the mid 90s. And after one break-up and subsequent reformation the have had plenty of time to develop and grow as musicians. The band’s bio claims this is the darkest and heaviest album they’ve written, so I was definitely interested to see just where they’re going with this release after reasserting themselves with 2006’s ‘Before the Bleeding Sun’.
The album opens with an atmospheric piece of melodic death metal which is unfortunately a little spoiled by that awful pre-programmed synthesizer strings sound that sounds like it is cut from an album from the 90’s. Other than that it’s a great symphonic slice of dark metal. ‘Baptized by the Blood of Angels’ fairs a little better; a more aggressive track than its predecessor to the point where the stock symphonic keyboard sounds are unable to take much away from it. ‘Tears of Autumn Rain’ is a very keyboard driven power metal track using choral vocals and better sounding effects to create a completely different sounding track compared to the first two. The fourth track ‘Summon the Wild’ sounds almost like early Cradle of Filth, but with a stronger prog-death metal influence; it’s not necessarily a bad thing but it does sound dated.
‘Sea of Whispers’ seems to have taken a page of Dark the Sun’s book by crafting a piano driven, slow atmospheric track which is certainly a very fine piece of song writing. ‘Midnight Bird’ is dark and heavy, perhaps the first track to get both right on this album so far - it’s definitely a straighter formula they’re working to on this one and it’s been the most effective thus far. ‘Diary of Demonic Dreams’ sounds like it was meant for a different band let alone a different album - the clean power metal vocals that lead just don’t mesh with the rest of the tracks here, and it’s only when the raspy vocals come back through that the track begins to feel like it should. ‘When the Darkest of Night Falls’ again manages to fulfill the promise of being dark and heavy with the choral vocals giving the track a haunting feel while the guitars power through. This then blends seamlessly into the penultimate track ‘Nocturne Thule’ which continues the trend. Finally for good measure we get an acoustic reprise of ‘Sea of Whispers’ for added impact.
I have to admit to loving some elements of this album and hating others. I’m sure dedicated followers of the band will eat this up as it is a pretty diverse album, but therein I think lies its downfall - it really attempts too much. If it stuck to the dark, heavy, atmospheric plan throughout, I have no doubt it would be an amazing album, but as it stands it just feels like some songs need to be more streamlined in order to preserve their punch, rather than just letting them sprawl across themselves.
http://www.eternaltears.info
http://www.myspace.com/etos1
