Over the past few years, I’ve come across a decent amount of solid up and coming extreme metal and punk acts from Arizona, which tells me there is a thriving underground scene out in that region of the country. Recently, I discovered this EP from death metal maniacs, Eternal, and was instantly taken back by the band’s raw unapologetic energy.
Titled, “Faceless Evil,” Eternal offers listeners five horrifying cuts of old school influenced death metal in the same vein as Obituary, Death, Autopsy and Massacre. This EP sounds like it came from the late 80’s/early 90’s period when death metal bands were really starting to unleash some utterly decimating releases. Eternal is by no means reinventing the wheel, but their sound and attitude pays homage to the gruesome death metal greats, while showcasing their skillful extreme music making talents.
The opening song off of the album will have some listeners surprised at first, but in the end, “Dagger to the Mind,” is a great opening piano composition to capture your attention. Also, I thought the song’s overall haunting ambience was a clever way to lead you into the fiery death metal onslaught that would take form on the second track, “Faceless Evil.” Right when the second song begins, you are instantly hit with a tremendous amount of raw old school death metal force. As the band slashes away at these ominous chord progressions the singer unleashes some tremendously decimating death metal vocals. Probably one of the areas of this album that I enjoyed the most was the vocal delivery, because so many young singers fail to maintain that profoundly sinister presence, where as the vocalist in Eternal stays consistent throughout the entire release.
On the third track, “To the Grave,” the band continues to stick to the old school formula by cranking out more putrid sounding riffs and agonizing drum arrangements. Also, the transition from the slower doom like parts to the more intense savage death metal compositions was very well executed. I liked how the band ended the song as well by coming up with a very abhorrent sounding riff section that reminded me of early Suffocation where the music hits you right in the gut with each palm muted chord strike. The last two tracks, “Diabolic Rebirth” and “Depravity,” are monstrous tracks that once again invoke the malevolent spirit of old school death metal. On, “Depravity,” I really enjoyed by the frantic lead guitar playing which was thrown into the blistering chaos. On future releases I definitely would like to hear more of those lead guitar fills as they do a great job adding to the sadistic soundscape.
Overall, Eternal’s “Faceless Evil,” is a solid EP that I would highly recommend fans of sickening old school death metal check out. I believe the band has something to offer and on their future albums I would like to see them continue to display the same savage attitude as they did on this EP, while also not being afraid to expand upon certain musical themes to create a very brutal and dynamic album. Eternal is another example of how this style of extreme music has continued to thrive even without mainstream recognition, because the young bands that have been inspired by the previous generations of extreme metal music are undeniably passionate fans looking to continue the brutal legacy by creating their own monstrously deafening releases.
Check out the full EP below:
Eternal Bandcamp:
https://eternalaz.bandcamp.com/
Eternal Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Eternalbandaz
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