Review Summary: A half-hearted attempt in recapturing the past.
Italy’s Eldritch are probably among the best kept secrets with respect to ’90s progressive metal. Their course started right upon the advent of the genre, while they can be legitimately regarded as contemporaries to critically acclaimed prog bands like Dream Theater. However, they were quite different from all their contemporaries, as apart from the prog metal sensation, their sound was influenced from speed metal, tech-thrash (they took their name from the eponymous Watchtower song, while founding member and guitarist Eugene Simeone is deeply influenced from the tech-thrash outfit of Coroner) and even Electronica. Their first three albums (
El Nino is an instant underground classic) were excellent samples of ’90s prog/power metal that amplified the band’s acclaim in Europe. Unfortunately, the inability to handle success, as well as unexpected health problems of certain band members, brought internal conflicts and the “classic” line-up of the first three records ceased to exist. The band’s acquired momentum, though, got them to sign with Metal Blade America and release another excellent album,
Reverse, in which they developed an intriguing Nevermore/Fear Factory/90’s prog hybrid, which, oddly enough, went down the drain commercially. As if this wasn’t enough, the line-up continued to suffer from constant changes. In result, the three following albums, although they lied within the melodic side of the heavy/speed metal genre, fluctuated well below the credible potential Eldritch once had.
Around 2009, Eldritch announced that they would return to the sound that made them intimate in the first place. As 2011 is heading towards its dusk, this return takes form in the band’s new album that runs by the name
Gaia’s Legacy and the question at hand lies in whether Eldritch have made a successful return to form. In reality, the new Eldritch album does not do enough to set its place away from the band’s previous release or the two records that the latter succeeded. Nominally, the songs are arranged in the same manor the
Blackenday-
Neighbourhell-
Portraits of the Abyss Within triplette was conceived. Crunchy heavy/thrash rhythm guitars are rigidly coupled to the corresponding double bass drumming, while the former leave the necessary room for vocals to unfold and lead to/succeed well crafted chorus lines. In addition to the lead and semi-acoustic/acoustic guitars, keyboards are used as well in building the tension and atmosphere the general concept of the record demands. The main difference with respect to the past is that some of the band’s original ’90s prog metal patterns are infused to the songs, up to a certain degree though. Accounting for the lyrical concept of
Gaia’s Legacy, Eldritch dress in music, the spoken words of Al Gore in
An Inconvenient Truth, the critically acclaimed documentary about the relapse of the environment due to the global warming effect. Except from the implementation of the documentary’s literal content for the lyrics, samples of Al Gore’s speeches or anchormen reading environmental news, are being placed in the beginning or within certain songs.
With respect to its final effect,
Gaia’s Legacy is, unfortunately, a half-heart attempt on behalf of band in recapturing the ante-
Reverse era. That holds due to several reasons. To begin with, the band’s music is well crafted in its entirety, but has little (or no) originality to offer to the fan that has devoured ’90s prog metal by the ton, or the new breed of metalheads searching their musical holy grail in movements like the so-called “djent” or the neo-prog rock/metal/metalcore sensation. The record’s merit would be a lot more substantial, should the vocals of founding member Terence Holler weren’t so – let’s say – “tired”. Although he performs very well on the chorus lines, in times where the songs cry desperately for high-pitch vocals, he simply fails to live up to task. All the above reasoning with respect to the record's going through the motions, is condensed in the band's cover for a highly acclaimed Fates Warning song, "Through Different Eyes". For relatively new fans of Eldritch, i.e. fans of the last three albums (minus this one) where the band has settled to a steady (yet somewhat stale) musical approach, this is not such a big setback. However, for those who know the band from day one, Holler’s vocals will be a big disappointment, as he is easily considered between the first decade of critically acclaimed, high-pitch singing, ’90s prog metal main men. Finally, the element that detracts further quality off the record, is its digital/”sterile” sound production, mainly in the guitars, whose sound feels grossly “compressed” and secondly the “homogenized” sound of the drums.
So where do the above leave everyone? Well, it’s simple, actually. For Eldritch, this is a little step, but a step nonetheless, in going away from the rather monotonous vibe of their last three records. New metalheads will probably avoid this, as there are tons of better records in today’s prog metal scene. Newer fans of the band will lie satisfied in their familiar niche, as the band does little to evolve its recent style. As for old fans, among which stands the author of this review, they will see this album in the same way an old man looks at the face of his equally old wife with whom he is still deeply in love after 50 years of marriage, i.e. as if she is still the young girl he first met.
Songs that stand out:
Our Land
Thinning out
Like a Child
