I often wonder about how bands that don’t live in the same locality manage to organise themselves sufficiently to be able to go about their creative endeavours. Marvelous indeed then that The Eternal manage to produce music given that their band members are split between those famous neighbouring cities of Melbourne, Australia and…erm…Helsinki, Finland.
In fact, half of the band are ex-Amorphis alumni, and therefore you may not be surprised to learn that “Skinwalker” is an addictive and accomplished piece of progressive gothic-tinged doom. In fact, the album features a number of guest-spots, including current members of Amorphis and Kreator. “Skinwalker” is not a lightweight album at all.
As if to punctuate this point, the first track, “Abandoned by Hope” weighs in at over ten minutes long, with many twists and turns, but includes both atmospheric clean vocals, as well as very deep, rasping death-growls. Musically, this hits somewhere between Eternity-era Anathema, Draconian Times-era Paradise Lost and Blackwater Park-era Opeth. If that isn’t whetting your appetite already, I’d be inclined to skip to the next review.
There are a host of influences to be found here among the gothic notes. “Deathlike Silence” has more than a nod to classic downbeat rock, whilst “Under the Black” has a wistful and plaintive atmosphere that gives way to an expansive outro section. The whole band are really clearly very accomplished, but I have to give special mention to vocalist and guitarist Mark Nelson, who has a really distinctive clean, powerful yet vulnerable voice which manages to add so much to the texture of the songs.
Album standout “The Iconoclast” also nearly tops the ten-minute mark, being a writhing, twisting progressive number with some amazing rhythm work around the mid-section from bassist Niclas Etaluvouri and drummer Jan Rechburger. Richie Poate’s six-string work really comes into its own on the rockier moments like “When the Fire Dies” or the buzzing dark electro-rock of the title track “Skinwalker”.
As a cohesive whole, I have to say hats off to the production team on this bad boy, because it’s among the most powerful yet delicate productions that I’ve heard from a gothic-metal album. When the guitars crunch here, it sounds like tomb doors being slammed shut. There’s an airless and suffocating heaviness to be found in the bottom end, yet it still manages to allow space for the melodies to breathe as a counterpoint. It sounds absolutely magnificent through a pair of decent headphones.
I’d not heard the Eternal before, but I think I’m going to be exploring their back catalogue. This is a quality piece of work – and I dare say that I will appreciate it more as the year moves on, as there’s so much to unpack here. Even now, after just a few listens, it’s clear that this is top tier stuff.
(8/10 Chris Davison)
Leave a Reply