Echoes of Eternity

As Shadows Burn

Written by: PP on 06/10/2009 22:35:41

Frequent Rockfreaks.net readers will know that I'm not a big fan of gothic metal records, and Echoes Of Eternity's sophomore album "As Shadows Burn" is a brilliant example why. It's your one in a dozen, run of the mill type of female fronted gothic metal album with a few progressive/symphonic metal overtones to, supposedly, 'spice up the formula' or something. Actually the first track "Ten Of Swords" is decent, featuring some thrashy melodeath style riffing, but without being one of those you'll be spamming your MSN friends to check out at any time. But second track "Veiled Horizon" is basically where album falls flat on its face. The slow-to-medium type tempo and riffs typical to gothic metal have been heard more times before than healthy for the genre, and the singer's medium-range, strong (as opposed to delicate, as is typical in the genre) voice isn't exactly original.

Basically, Echoes Of Eternity are a pretty standard, unsurprising, dare I say uninspiring gothic metal outfit following the genre format page by page without deviating from its core sound. They may have the occasional head-bang inducing riff sequence, but all too often these are ruined by a pace switch to a slow - supposedly melodic - atmospheric passage that destroys the aggression-factor completely. Passages like these are bland, and alone give this album its painstakingly average feel overall.

It must be said though that the album gets better around its halfway mark, but placing your good songs five to six songs into the record isn't exactly a perfect starting point as most people will be bored by track three, latest four. "Twilight Fires" sports some nice melodeath instrumentals, starting from the melodically shredding guitars and the double pedal blast beat domination of the soundscape, just like "Buried Beneath A Thousand Dreams", but even these are ruined by their vocalist's, sorry to say, boring delivery. Anyway, it's too little, too late, I'm afraid.

5

Download: Twilight Fires, Ten Of Swords
For the fans of: Eternal Tears Of Sorrow, Lunatica, gothic metal in general
Listen: Myspace

Release date 25.09.2009
Massacre Records

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