ETERNAL TEARS OF SORROW - review added 30th June 2009
Album Review: Children Of The Dark Waters (2009)
For fans of: Symphonic Death Metal... and Emperor
You could describe this as one of the happiest named bands ever producing one of the most joyously titled albums ever, but you'd be lying. Man alive, the names are as downbeat as a manic depressive with a complex attending a convention for finger pointing fetishists. In all fairness, the music isn't that gloomy but, yowser, they really need to work on the title.
Altti Veteläinen (vocals and bass), Jarmo Puolakanaho (guitar), Juho Raappana (drums), Jarmo Kylmänen (clean vocals), Risto Ruuth.(guitar) and Janne Tolsa (keyboard) are the happy-go-lucky bunch of musicians behind this particular Eternal Tears Of Sorrow album. Mika Lammassaari has since replaced Risto Ruuth in the line up.
Their sound is a tech-rich symphony of melodious keyboards, complex drums, synth sounds and vocals. The singing is split between Altti Veteläinen's grumbling devil voices and Jarmo Kylmänen's more straight ahead style. Altti gets the majority of the work and his sound is not unpleasant on the ears... assuming you don't mind his throaty death-metal style of vocalizing.
Opening track, the catchily(?) titled 'Angelheart, Ravenheart (Act II: Children of the dark waters)' has plenty of drum/keyboard duelling and wandering guitar pieces. It's an impressive track, but lacks in lasting appeal. The 'Tears Of Autumn Rain' is much better. There are beautiful choral and harmonized sections in the song giving it a mature air. The contrast between them, the guitar soloing and gravelly vocals is intriguing and the song deserves any praise it gets.
'Summon The Wild' is a considerably heavy and faster song. It isn't massively memorable, and several million layers of keyboards and orchestral elements mean it's very busy, but it's a likeable track while it lasts. 'Sea Of Whispers' sees Jarmo Kylmänen's first bout of clean vocals. He isn't exactly Joe Lynn Turner, but he has a certain something in his intonations. The song itself is approaching the land of brilliance and is comfortably the best here.
'When the Darkest Night Falls' sounds like a score from a fantastical blockbuster in a barren wasteland inhabited by ghouls and cacodemons. At two and a half minutes, it's only a burst of noise in the general scheme of things, but it's rousing all the same. 'Nocturne Thule' is an above average track with cool vocals. The clean harmonies, featuring the wonderful lady-singers Miriam Renvåg & Heidi Parviainenare are awesome. The final track is a reprise of the album's best track, 'Sea Of Whispers', and only serves to confirm what a good track it is.
A lot of Children Of The Dark Waters sounds like Emperor's work, but without the final level of writing panache Ihsahn and co. show. The musicianship is great (especially Janne Tolsa's keyboard work) and the harmonies (with special mention for Miriam Renvåg & Heidi Parviainenare's work) are wonderful, but the end result struggles to rise above average - the brilliant 'Sea Of Whispers' excepted.
Check out... 'Sea Of Whispers' of course.
Track List:
1. Angelheart, Ravenheart (Act II: Children of the dark waters)
2. Baptized by the blood of angels
3. Tears of autumn rain
4. Summon the wild
5. Sea of whispers
6. Midnight bird
7. Diary of demonic dreams
8. When the darkest night falls
9. Nocturne Thule
10. Sea of whispers ACOUSTIC REPRISE ( Bonus track )
Label: Massacre Records
Band websites: Eternal Tears Of Sorrow , MySpace
