Sangre Eterna sounds like the name of a Gothic band to me, but the reality is that the chosen musical vehicle for this Serbian band is melodic death metal. In fact their second album starts off in lively and breathless fashion, leaving us in no doubt that they mean business. The template is clear. What I was hearing was Dark Tranquillity without the clean vocal sections but with elements of Children of Bodom and in Flames.
Pulsating and exciting, the air of ‘The End of Beauty’ is fresh. Keyboards have a part to play, adding tension to the heavy melody. The head-snapping rhythm continues on ‘The Masquerade’, which has a Finnish touch in sound and line-up with a guest appearance by Norther’s Aleksi Shivonen. The dark. deep and rampant melodies continue. In between the constant battery, there is some lively and interesting guitar work. The singer growls on, Stanne style. The keyboards continue to add an extra layer of gravitas. We’re now at the fourth track and there are noticeable trends starting to develop. First, the drumming sounds the same, to the point where I wondered if they were sampled. I can tell you there is a real drummer. It’s like listening to a pneumatic drill during roadworks. It is also apparent that whilst the tracks develop technically, there’s a tendency for the tracks to lose direction and end without any sort of conclusion. There is a decidedly standard pattern. Those drums pump out their mechanical beat and the metal is solid and driving. It’s more than acceptable without ever threatening to be the ultimate musical experience. ‘Seventh Angel’ follows the usual template as the vocalist growls on to the customary melodic and heavy wall of sound, but here there’s a clean vocal insertion. It didn’t work and detracted from the impact. On this album there’s a rock version of this same track – oh dear. I now know that Sangre Eterna can play insipid rock songs.
To break the monotony, there are two tracks in the middle to break the evident mould. ‘The Echoes of my Loss’ is steadier. The change of pace is welcome. There’s a nice bit of keyboard work. The guitar creates flamboyance. There’s emotion. ‘The Echoes of my Loss’ may be at the lighter end of heavy metal but it’s more epic than the others. I wasn’t so sure about the female vocal insertion but there’s a nice progression about this track, which arguably is more mature than the others. ‘Shattered Sun’, which follows it, is atmospheric in tone. Its build-up is aided by the eerie whistle of the keyboard. The driving and meaty instrumentals combine well with the growls but here the atmosphere is sinister.
My reaction to ‘Asphyxia’ is mixed. I really enjoyed the lively melodic death metal but it’s almost as if Sangre Eterna don’t know where to go with it. Those two tracks in the middle showed maturity, which also served to create more interest, but overall I felt that Sagre Eterna needed to burst out more and give rein to their creativity. For the most part, they spend too much time in the safe zone on this album.
(5.5 / 10, Andrew Doherty)
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