Sunday, December 26, 2004

Ethereal Blue - Black Heart Process

There are quite a few Greek bands that have moulded from the ethernal ground. Before there where black metal bands like Rotting Christ and Septic Flesh, but here i will present to you a new and upcomming; Atmospheric Death Metal Band:

Ethereal Blue - Black Heart Process [Deadsun Records 2005]

Melodic Death/Black Metal I recently received a promo from a Greek band, which granted my attention as i started to hear what theese guys have put on disc...

The band started up in 2002.
They have previously recorded a demo called: "A Mourning Ocean"

This was a copy of their debut album: “Black Heart Process”. The music can be described as melodic and atmospheric death metal, with some mixed influences of black metal.
Theese guys have contributed a great manifest of a debut album. I liked the contrast and variations, which was a sign of a well co-ordinated band. The guitars lies steady as rock's, with melodic fragments by keyboard. The music gave me a certain feeling of bands like Graveworm & Ancient Ceremony, when i played the first round. But later on, i clearly see that they have their own style... This is an album you have to play some rounds in the stereo before you really understand it’s potential.... [U can buy the cd here]

Song By Song:
1. Intro: Your Mechanical Ego - 1:54 Unexpected opening, with some industrial elements. Symphonic inspired track.

2. Destination: Denial - 6:14 Trash or die... This song is straight forward and easy to get. The lead guitar is basic layer here, with the death vs clean vocals as the direct oposite to each other. One of my favourites...

3. Despair - 6:42 High speed, trash & die... Death Metal!!! Guitar oriented, with clean and death vocals. I had to play this repeatedly, for some times.

4. War - 3:28 Mid-tempo with hunting vocal... One of the tracks that did hit me straight away. Constantly changes in composition makes it a little progressive as well.

5. Black Heart Purification - 8:52 Here you can find links to Gothic and Black styles. There are very good contrast's in both lyrics and music. Vocals are grim as hell, followed up by a clean “hunting” "backup-vocal". A well played interlude builds up to the climax, of a ending, on the track. My personal favourite.

6. Transplanted Images - 5:13 Clean vocals opens this song. Not much to say.. In the end you get somekind of a “soft vs raw” vocal. This can be a little boring in the long run though..

7. Licking the Wounds - 6:43 Straight on it, Pure Death..... But again, contrast's in music is a phenomena within metal music. I think you can draw paralells to Graveworm/ and other melodic metal-bands.

8. Noi, Tu, Loss - 8:57 Melancholic opening here... Burst into fast and powerfull death/black- metal. Under this layer you find great symphonic elements and the well known clean vocals.
Total Running Time – 48:03 + The band is coordinated, and both music and lyrics are well performed. - The vocals could have been more visible in some of the songs. Some minor details on the production. (Sound and mix) I have only one thing to say about this album.. Buy it.
5.8/6


Lineup
Efthimis V. - vocals Fokion S. - guitars George A. - guitars Miltos D. - bass Dimitris K.- drums Akis P. - keyboards and piano
Check them out:[myspace/etherealblueband]