Eternitas

I'd always pictured that for my one hundredth review I'd either finally find an album worthy of a perfect score or I'd just bash another album that deserves absolutely nothing. Eternitas is neither of those things, and instead it falls more into the grounds of being fairly average, even slightly below that.

I'm beginning to grow quite fond of the genre of gothic metal, particularly the symphonic/gothic mix that Satyrian play. As a result I've found albums in this genre that blow me away, so I know exactly what it is that I'm looking for here. In truth there are several elements, one of them being the vocals, another being the keyboard and the last being the guitars. The drumming isn't something that's going to have an effect on the entire outcome, but obviously I'd like that to be good as well. But above all, there needs to be atmosphere.

The band trip up at one of the first hurdles by lacking anything with real power behind it. I was critical of the band Annatar for never reaching the great peak that they seemed to be building up to, and Satyrian face the same problem. It's all gentle and slow, and while the guitars occasionally decide to play a randomly obvious note that sounds out of place (works for Children of Bodom, but their musical style is very, very different), they never do anything that has any real meaning behind it. Nothing ever hits me hard enough.

Once the band's climbed back up from that fall and decided to soldier on despite the limp that it's left them with, there's still another big problem for them: this genre is vocally-driven, and their singer is on the poorer end of the scale. It's probably a personal thing, but I just find the lead singer's voice a little annoying and for the most part she doesn't give me any kind of positive impression. The backing vocals are decent, but nothing beyond that.

As mentioned the guitarist is prone to having a bit of a muscle spasm every now and again and play an extremely off-key note while accidentally leaning on the whammy bar. It's a bit off-putting, because I like my music to, you know, make sense. Seriously, why did they decide that was a good idea? It adds nothing, and I find myself comparing to CoB, who make it at least fit in with their stuff. Just go and jam with a power metal band where that'll work, not in a symphonic/gothic release.

A bit of an issue is that after their previous failings, the band continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. Picture a Formula One race where the first corner is clearly a ninety-degree right hander. Now picture Pastor Maldonado turning left at that corner (because he's that kind of guy). To do it once is pretty dumb, but imagine him doing that every single time he comes to that turn. You'd think he'd at least learn from his mistakes, wouldn't you? Well, Satyrian do pretty much the same thing. They make the same mistakes every single time, and even if they'd done it well the first time around I would get fed up of listening to the same song on repeat across an entire album. And even when they do try something different, just like if Maldonado were to try turning left at another angle you know what the outcome is going to be (failure).

As a whole the package isn't great either, and I find it lacking in every sense. There are some good bits, like the fact that I don't have to bash the keyboard player along with everyone else, but other than that there's really nothing to take from this.

The early days of Satyrian was the band DANSE MACABRE, a band whose album I had bought some years ago. Now it is the time of Satyrian with their debut album "Eternitas" which was released through Lion Music last month. The band has included twelve songs and almost an hour of gothic/atmospheric metal music. From the opening track the band gives us what we are about to listen to in the next hour of their album. Definitely the band knows really well what they want to pass to the listener through their album and it is almost needless to say that their compositions are more than well worked and they have included some very interesting ideas and created some really impressive song structures. So as a typical gothic/atmospheric metal band, Satyrian have dual male and female vocals, with the male vocals sometimes being a bit more aggressive. The thing that I adored mostly in Satyrian, except of course for their music was the fact that I found their songs and arrangements very theatrical. It was a surprise for me and of course their production and sound are more than excellent. Generally Satyrian have gathered a lot of influences from rock to metal music and from classic to atmospheric. I believe that their new album is one of the best for this year in the gothic/atmospheric metal scene!

Official Site: www.satyrian.com
E-mail band: [email protected]
E-mail label: [email protected]

Antonis Maglaras
Rating: 9/10

http://www.geocities.com/behind_the_veil2001/may_frames.html

Once upon a time, gothic metal group Danse Macabre broke up and new, equally oriented band arose under a different name and with similar line-up - Satyrian – it really is an international band, the musicians come from Finland, Netherlands, Germany and Serbia.

I already mentioned, the music is similar as of Dance Macabre, thus, gothic metal with female vocals and since the first song on the album we can hear all characteristic elements of bands playing this style. Keyboard and guitar driven music is also supported by deeper male vocals at times. Unfortunately description of the CD could very well stop here. Mostly brisk songs with not that great choruses are mixed with occasional ballads (Feel The Rush, Sacred Lies) and the folkish The Bridge Of Death can remind one of the works of Ayreon.

From the above - written lines it might seem, that it is a bad album, it is not the case. Invictus, Fall From Grace, No Tears No Embrace or for example This Dream are good songs, above - mentioned Feel The Rush with its charming chorus and Bridge Of Death belong to the best pieces of the album, but as a whole the album is not exceptional in any way.

Fans of the genre can add one point to the rating as they most likely will like the album. For us others it is an album quite pleasant to listen to, but not for a long time.

Written for http://www.metalzone.info