El niño

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect at first, being unfamiliar with their prior work, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to find this album a pretty good listen. Whenever you acquire an album by a band you’ve never heard (let alone heard of), there’s always that nagging doubt that you may very well have just wasted some money that could’ve been better spent on another album by a band you know and love. But, I have to say that in this case, my doubts were unfounded.

“El Nino” starts off with a fairly catchy, but adequately heavy, tune called “Fall From Grace”. Not what I would call a very original song title, but the song is still a pretty good start to an album. It builds up slowly, with something sounding vaguely Lost Horizon-esque in it’s sort of spacey electronic sounds, and then breaks into some pretty heavy rhythm and lead riffs, coupled with spoken-word vocals. This album is not off to a bad start.

The second track, “No Direction Home”, is decidedly heavier than the first. With the lead-in already taken care of in “Fall From Grace”, “No Direction Home” is free to get right into the nitty-gritty. And it does just that. This track starts off no-bullshit and ends that way. It’s definitely a good head-banging track, and the electronic bits thrown in here and there break up what could otherwise be a monotonous, standard-issue thrash track without seeming out of place. However, the break-down in the middle of the song does tend to drag down the tempo and tone established earlier in the song. While there are parts of the break-down that definitely add something worthwhile to the song, there are also bits that seemed a bit superfluous. Other than that, the song’s a good listen. Not something I’d necessarily skip over.

“Heretic Beholder”, the third track, starts off sounding almost like mid-90s black metal, but as soon as the vocals start, that impression goes right out the window. The guitar riffs are definitely heavy, but they’re tempered slightly by the melodic vocals. I have to say, this song is pretty unremarkable. It’s fairly average in it’s construction and delivery. There are some noteworthy bits and pieces to the song, but those are slightly overshadowed by the fact that the rest of the song is pretty mediocre. The leads are… good, but pretty much standard-issue stuff.

The fourth track, “Scar”, started out with some great rhythms, and then morphs into this video game-esque electronic bit, and then back into the original riffs again. It’s a pretty interesting start. Until the lead guitar does it’s thing. That sort of threw off the tone built by the rhythm section, and was more of an annoying distraction than anything. In my opinion, this song would’ve been better if they’d just kept going with the first rhythm bit they played and built off that, rather than switch focus to the lead doing it’s own thing. The vocals also seem to be working at cross-purposes. But, maybe that’s just me.

“Bleed Mask Bleed” is a pretty good track. Heavy, lacking the irritating misplaced leads of the previous track, and the vocals actually seem to be accomplishing something here. This track is definitely noteworthy. It’s well written, well constructed, and well delivered. Not a track I’d pass up, especially not after the disappointment of “Scar”.

“The Last Days of the Year” is basically the requisite ballad of the album. It’s not a bad song, though. It sounds almost reminiscent of some Savatage tracks, which is definitely not a bad thing. As far as ballads go, this isn’t a terrible song, but if you’re looking for something really fast-paced and heavy, you might want to pass over this track.

Next up we have “From Dusk Till Dawn”. Also not exactly a creative song title, but the song writing isn’t bad. The guitars scream into action, with the vocals quick on their heels. Like most of this album, “From Dusk Till Dawn” features some pretty good song writing. It’s nothing earth-shattering, by any means, but it’s still a good song. Another listenable track on what is, for the most part, a listenable album.

“To Be or Not to Be (God)” is the next track on the album, and it starts off like most of the other tracks on the album. The guitars blaze the trail, and the vocals follow close behind. At this point in the album, I find myself thinking that a lot of the songs sound the same, to greater or lesser degrees. They’re all well written, for the most part, and they’re all pretty heavy. This track is no exception.

The final track on the album, the title track “El Nino” starts of fairly low-key, but that quiet atmosphere is shattered almost immediately by rather ear-splitting keyboard work. And when I say “ear-splitting”, I don’t mean it in a good way. It’s jarring, and seems out of place. Here, Savatage influences are glaringly obvious. Unfortunately, Eldritch doesn’t seem to have mastered the integration of piano/keyboards and guitars as Savatage had. This track’s a little rough around the edges, if you ask me, but there’s definitely potential for improvement. If you can get past the irritating keyboard bits, the rest of the song is actually pretty good. It’s got a very uplifting tone in some places (where the irritating keyboard is blessedly absent) that redeems the song, for the most part.

Then there’s the hidden track at the end of “El Nino”. Much like the lead-in, the lead-out track sums up the album well and leaves you with a sense of having just heard an album that was put together well. It definitely gives you a good send-off.

Overall, this album was pretty good. Not exactly what I would call ground-breaking, by any stretch of the imagination, but enjoyable none-the-less. A Savatage influence was prevalent through most of the album, as well as some other, less noteworthy, bands in a similar vein. If you’ve got a few extra bucks laying around, go ahead and pick up this album. It’s a pretty good listen, and there isn’t much “filler” here. All the tracks are pretty heavy, and pretty enjoyable. “El Nino” is definitely worth a listen.