Eternity

To all but the most naive of metalheads, this thing clearly has about seven dead giveaways as to what it's going to sound like. It's Spanish, was released in the late 1990s, is on the Arise label, has completely generic band and album names coupled with ridiculous song titles...must we continue? Sure, none of those factors alone or even in combination is enough to guarantee an album will suck, but they certainly don't set the listener up with big expectations. Even still, "Eternity" was a disappointment, further redefining the term "generic".

Sorcery apparently was one of the many melodic power metal bands that completely inundated the metal scene in the late 90s. Most of these have been long forgotten; I think we can add Sorcery to that list as well. "Eternity" just reeks of mediocrity, coming off as a fifth-rate Helloween clone. All the guys playing the instruments are relatively competent, but the vocalist is lousy. His voice is altogether too thin and evinces none of the power displayed by the genre's best. Also, he's apparently of the belief that power metal singers absolutely must have a wide range, as he strains much too hard to hit higher notes. However, don’t take that to mean that he’s okay in the lower octaves – no, he sucks, period. Still, bands composed of competent players and a poor vocalist can make decent records. Unfortunately, Sorcery isn’t one of these bands, for "Eternity" features some of the most boring songwriting ever seen. Not helping matters is the muted production that makes the whole thing sound like an easy-listening affair on all but about maximum volume. The guitars are as flat and lifeless as possible, the drums sound especially weak, and the bass, well…er, what bass? Just about every song feels too slow, as if the drummer’s feet couldn’t go any faster, thus setting a pace that falls uncomfortably between galloping and fast. Hell, I’m not even going to mention a “favorite” (more like most tolerable) song, as doing so might convince a confused reader that there’s anything on here remotely worth a damn.

Thankfully Sorcery never polluted the metal world with any further garbage after this disc. If you're ever tasked to give an example of the worst the power metal scene had to offer during the great flood of the late 1990s, cite this disc. At least you'll have gotten some small use out of it, which is more than I can say for anyone who simply listened to it and likely threw it out the window after the first few tracks. I normally end reviews of bad power metal with a line like, "Only serious power metal fans need apply", but I'm not even going to do that here. Honestly, anyone with a set of ears that can be classified as equal to or better than "generally working" would likely be either overcome with ennui and asleep in ten minutes, or completely offended at the thought of such a generic band actually making money off this thing. Do yourself a favor and avoid it, a task made easier by the fact that the disc apparently went out of print about a week after it was first pressed. Trust me, that’s not your loss.