Eternal Storm never gives up.
Formed in 2007 under the name Death Valley, the band released their first EP in 2013, followed by a split the following year, but we’ll have to wait until 2019 and their signing to Transcending Obscurity Records to hear their debut album. In 2024, Daniel Maganto (guitar/bass, Cancer, Liquid Graveyard, Sacthu), Jaime Torres (guitar/vocals), Danny R. Flys (vocals/guitar, Persefone) and Jonathan Heredia (drums, Thirteen Bled Promises, Eterna Penumbra, Aversio Humanitatis) unveil A Giant Bound to Fall, their second album.
The band welcomes an impressive number of guests, including Sven de Caluwé (Aborted), Dan Swanö (Nightingale, ex-Bloodbath, ex-Edge of Sanity…), Sergi Verdeguer (Persefone), Jaboto Fernández (Nexus 6, Yskelgroth…), Gabriel Valcázar (Cancer, Wormed), Rober Bustabad (Ruinas) and former members.
The album opens with the lengthy An Abyss of Unreason, a soothing introduction that darkens as soon as the first drum hits hit, before literally devastating the quiet landscape, leaving only airy snatches of calm. Majestic riffs and vocal parts join the furious waves that steadily crash into the dark tableau, occasionally letting melancholy come back to it between surges, then the band joins A Dim Illusion to unveil catchy rhythmic patterns. The track almost changes personality along the way, placing much more playful elements in its dissonant veil that contrast with the haunting basis, also found on There was a Wall and its enchanting harmonics, destined to naturally ignite. The track flows smoothly, with each element reinforcing the melody in one way or another, before giving way to Last Refuge and its immediate rage, which nonetheless offers a few glimpses of respite via clean vocals or soaring leads. More raw vocal parts once again fuel the striking contrast, notably with the steamy keyboards the band also uses on Eclipse, the shortest track, which takes the form of a soothing interlude before adopting Shoegaze influences as it leads us into Lone Tree Domain, the next track. The musicians once again play on a real opposition between their different visceral influences, before making the mix hazy and apathetic, with only drums keeping their energetic touch, before The Sleepers take over, developing once again the gentle yet dissonant approach while retaining the bestial cries. The Void returns to the lively outbursts of fury that the musicians effortlessly orchestrate between two soothing waves of quietude, then it’s with A Giant Bound to Fall, the eponymous composition, that the album draws to a close, weaving a final canvas as melodious as it is complex and intricate, where each element finds its place by linking the others.
We can only admire Eternal Storm‘s work. The band has taken advantage of these years of silence to give A Giant Bound to Fall an incredible coherence, letting each touch of rage complement the quietude and vice versa. The album is still very long, but above all it’s very rich.
80/100