Positive Rage

Having recently rediscovered French power/progressive unit Dream Child, it felt natural to give semi-related Eternal Flight a shot, which were formed by vocalist Gérard Fois and new members once Dream Child had split-up. Now Dream Child’s Reaching the Golden Gates saw the band taking a step in the progressive direction; something I enjoyed hearing, but wasn’t too fond of and it only made me wonder what Eternal Flight would have in store.

Although its generic album title and hilarious cover artwork would promise a power metal album without any substance, Positive Rage sounds even more modernized than Dream Child’s Reaching the Golden Gates, but this easily surpasses that album in terms of quality thanks to guitarist Christophe Offredi. I'm sure he carefully studied the arts of great power/progressive metal bands in his youth, as Positive Rage brings to mind earlier, riff-fronted bands from time to time. ‘’The Masks will Fall’’ and ‘’New World’’ immediately made me think of Eldritch’s first two albums in terms of sophisticated, yet explosive rhythm work. ‘’Real’’ is more of a conventional chugging track and although this kind of riff-writing can be very hit-or-miss, you end up with something far more reminiscent of Conception circa ’95 than anything else. Funny enough, ‘’Beyond’’ made me think of mid-to-late 90’s Gamma Ray and as you guess, it’s easily the most power metal-esque track on Positive Rage. With far more simplistic riffs played at a relatively high pacing, it’s basically a track Kai Hansen could only wish of coming up at one point.

Besides thrilling riffs, you end up occasional wailed vocals and simplistic, yet memorable choruses that are the main ingredients of these compositions. ‘’The Masks Will Fall’’ sees Christophe Offredi unleashing a chain reaction of storming riffs and if you think of getting a chance to digest what’s happened once you’ve hit the play button…think again. Its chorus sounds fairly predictable, but that’s hardly an issue with someone like Gérard Fois on vocals. He doesn’t scream as much as he did during his Dream Child years here (where he seemed to channel a young Warrel Dane), but instead his style is rather comparable to that of James Rivera in terms of vocal tricks here. Keys are certainly evident, but they’re hardly a prominent feature of the record - instead it’s mostly about the forceful riffs flying around the semi-wailed vocals.

I’ll admit: the rest of the record doesn’t top the opener, but that would only be problematic if you’d end up with obvious fillers. The more melodic, yet riff cutter ‘’Guardians’’ serves as a worthy second track and hearing Gérard Fois screaming for vengeance around the two minute mark makes the track even more entertaining. ‘’Morphoenix’’ is one of the longer tracks on the record, but even here you end up with another tour-de-force of choppy riffs that resembles what Saber Tiger have been doing since the last decade or Outworld’s final promo album in terms of modernized, yet punchy guitar work that's not made for the weak. At last, ‘’The Moon King’’ is a wonderful moody (meaning: consists of tranquil acoustic guitar riffs and space-y keyboard motives), yet riff-centered track. The partial stop-go riffing could easily mean trouble if the wrong guitarist played this stuff, but with someone like Christophe Offredi on guitars, the result is a great album closer that maybe…just maybe, Pagan’s Mind could come up if only they’d stop taking sleeping pills (which to my ears they seem to do every time they enter a studio, how else could their music sound so dull?)

Although I’d love to praise Positive Rage much more, unfortunately it features couple of tracks not quite on the same level as most of the material, as the downside of this album comes down to…you’ve guessed it – its runtime! Positive Rage is over an hour long and would flow better if you’d trim its fat off. ‘’All We Are’’ ends up like a mediocre vocally-driven track that chugs onward – it’s a bit of a by-the-numbers progressive metal tune and not exactly effective. The groove-driven ‘’Back into the Light’’ sounds both overlong and too restrained for its own good, that perhaps would work better if it were half as long. Again, it’s not exactly an awful track, but it’s rather underwhelming when compared to blitzkrieg tracks such as ‘’The Masks Will Fall’’ and ‘’New World''. Worst of the worst, ‘’Secret Place’’ is a lifeless ballad that appears halfway through the record and although that hypnotizing main motif promises something good, the track never takes off. Gérard Fois sounds at his most uninspired here and the result is something as moving as watching paint dry.

Fortunately, Positive Rage features more pros than cons and although it's one of the most overlooked power/progressive albums out there, fans of the heavier and riff-centered style should certainly have a good time here. Now listen to it and enjoy what you've been missing!

This review was originally written for antichristmagazine.com

Expectation can often be the enemy of enjoyment, it will tend to cloud one's perspective as to how an album unfolds, and ultimately serve to prejudice how one will regard a band. To be fair, marketing and external appearances can often run contrary to the musical reality contained within, and often times albums of a more progressive character can be viewed as convoluted or unmemorable simply because one expects the sort of massive chorus fanfare and lofty high fantasy storytelling that tends to go with a power metal album coming out of Europe in the 2000s. This is the sort of conundrum that a band such as Eternal Flight would have dealt with, one that can only really be overcome with a clear understanding of the band's roots and the state of affairs circa 2004 when their debut effort Positive Rage was unveiled via Cruz Del Sur Records, a then young label based in Italy that was best known at the time for being the springboard for more traditionally oriented heavy metal outfits such as Pharaoh and Battleroar, though they would also field the 2003 sophomore album of San Francisco progressive upstarts Hammers Of Misfortune as well.

To the uninitiated into the back story of this then new outfit, one would need to venture into the sonic wastelands of the mid-1990s, just at the dawn of what some would dub the European power metal revival/2nd wave. During this time period France was not exactly green pastures for metal music, let alone a virtual throwback to the heyday of mid-80s USPM with a progressive edge, but that was precisely what this band's lead vocalist Gérard Fois brought to the table with his previous band Dream Child. After fielding two highly impressive LPs and a brief run with Metal Blade Records, said former band disintegrated and its respective members basically fell off the radar save guitarist Dominique Leurquin who would end up serving as a six-string foil to Luca Turilli for his various projects throughout the 2000s and beyond, leaving Fois to pick up the proverbial pieces. Either out of respect for his former band mates or a desire to start from scratch, he would opt to continue the same signature style of Dream Child in a more modernized manner under the name Eternal Flight, a name taken from one of the most compelling songs off the former band's debut no less.

When treating this album as a sort of third Dream Child album under a different band name, the combination of a wholly retro character of album art with a massive mid-2000s sounding production and a slightly more Euro-power sounding template becomes a bit more logical. Nevertheless, this album does mark a slight stylistic departure from the Queensryche meets Crimson Glory mystique of Torn Between Two Worlds and Reaching The Golden Gates, coming off more as a 90s Dream Theater brand of progression with hints of a slightly Nevermore-inspired grooviness and a healthy dose of the bombast that's pretty far removed from an 80s retro sound. Among some of the more prominent bands of the day that would be comparable to this would be that of Brainstorm, though the generally mid-paced feel and heavy keyboard usage tends to predict the signature sound of later 2000s AOR-infused bands such as Saidian and Destination's Calling. This is particularly noteworthy on more elongated anthems such as "Beyond (The Golden Gates)" (yet another allusion to Fois' roots in Dream Child) and the closing 9 minute epic closer "The Moon King", which are fancy and feature speedy drum lines, yet have this sense of progressing gradually and having a sort of static foundation upon which the technical detailing and soaring vocals flow outward.

As a whole, this album is about as monumental of an undertaking as the Dream Child debut, clocking in at over an hour and featuring a wide array of progressive-leaning anthems. It starts on a notably flashy Euro-power infused romp in "The Masks Will Fall" that carries a fair degree of affinity with the hybrid 80s speed metal of Helstar and rhythmic intrigue of Fates Warning that typified said album, while having a bit more of a modern edge to it that isn't far removed from the sort of material Pagan's Mind and Communic were dabbling with around the same time. Similar stories of riff happy speed and rhythmic nuance emerge in "New World" and "Morphoenix", while the somewhat more restrained madness of "Guardians" and the partial ballad "Real" betray a bit more of a chunky character that isn't far removed from the aforementioned Nevermore influences, though Fois' vocals are far less melodramatic and sloppy than Warrel Dane's, having more of a raspy Andy Franck character to them. There aren't really any dull spots to be found on this highly polished sword of steel, though it shines the brightest when things go longer and the technical capabilities of the flock of instrumentalists surrounding Fois are fully exploited, namely the latter half of the album and particularly "Back Into The Light" and closer "The Moon King".

The jury is out as to whether this album was properly marketed given that the entire European metal scene was in a state of flux between the transitioning popularity of Helloween-styled melodic power and the more groovy variant that would supplant it for the latter half of the 2000s, let alone the fact that Fois himself had kind of been swimming against the tides of current trends for his entire career, but this album definitely didn't receive the degree of recognition that it should have. Most criticisms that have been levied on it seem to inappropriately treat it as another early 2000s Stratovarius or Gamma Ray affair, which a simple sampling of Dream Child's two albums would very much cut against. For the unique niche of heavier-ended progressive fair with an eye still affixed to the older USPM stylings that were still largely considered out of fashion in the mid-200s, this is a solid slab of technical goodness that should be enjoying a wider audience. Then again, Fois seems to be at peace with the idea of being an underrated contributor to the power metal scene and there aren't any visible signs of this band stopping, so any fears of Eternal Flight folding due to lack of market interest will likely continue to be a non-factor.

Recognise the artist of this album cover? Granted, only the metal cover art aficionados will be interested, but nevertheless the name Geoffrey Gillespie should invoke some sort of recognition from the die-hard trad metal fan. Gillespie was the man responsible for most of those classic late 80’s Warlock and Doro albums. If anything, his work has always screamed ‘MEETTAALLL’ to me, and for French power metallers Eternal Flight the feeling is no different. Visually, at least, EF has done well. As for the rest….well…

Coming out of France, Eternal Flight is actually some sort of rebirth of a band called Dream Child, which was fronted by current EF vocalist ‘Gerard Fois’. Dream Child actually released two albums in the late 90’s (the last ‘Reaching the Golden Gates on Metal Blade) before things went kaput. Taking the EF moniker from a Dream Child song, EF are now a fully functioning band and ‘Positive Rage’ is the first of a new contract signed with fledgling Italian label (home to the mighty Slough Feg and Pharaoh) Cruz Del Sur Music.

I must admit that my initial impressions of ‘Positive Rage’ were not too gracious. Over time and after several repeated listens, I can say that it has grown on me, however it still has a somewhat awkward quality about it that I’ll never fully embrace. EF plays rather standard fare melodic power metal. The songwriting suggests as much. No surprises here folks. No adventure (other than some slight progressive elements), no real risk taking or revelations in what is a rather safe style. The label PR has worked overtime in trying to pass EF off as some sort of missing link between Nevermore and Savatage meets Dream Theater – and while I can hear elements of each in EF’s music, they are far from reaching the heights established by the aforementioned metal peers.

Without any doubt, the production (Luigi Stefanini @ New Sin) and overall presentation of this album is top notch. Like a lot of middle tier power metal acts, they’re extremely good at what they do. But their musically dexterity also becomes somewhat of an albatross around the neck when for 95% of the time, EF refuse to do anything remotely challenging or original. The fact that Fois is a somewhat annoying vocalist doesn’t help matters either. His style is built on all of the main essential players of the genre, but lacks their character and power. Having digested all of this, ‘Positive Rage’ exists solely as a competent, entertaining, but hardly ‘essential’ power metal album. If you’ve just got to have a new Power Metal album every week, then you’d probably shell out the hard earned for this, but the more discernable fan wouldn’t be so convinced. I’d suggest biding your tame listening to your old favorites or better still hold off for the new Kamelot. Now that will be something to die for!

As a melodic power metal band, Eternal Flight are strictly middle tier. The super production and presentation scores points for the band, but when it comes to the bottom line – I.E ‘The Songs’ – Positive Rage is sadly lacking in anything truly compelling or worth revisiting time and again.

Krozza: www.pyromusic.net and www.wallsoffire.de