Eldritch
Tasting the Tears

Tasting the tears of twenty years of musical conception, is what Italian progressive masters Eldritch are doing. Their debut saw the light of day in 1995, now almost twenty years later their ninth album is about to be unleashed upon the world. It features a blue album cover and the sextet is said to have been working as a team pulling together their inspiration into one musical direction. How that comes through in their musical endeavour in this album is a bit hard to say since it sounds as though they build on the same foundation as before, building a somewhat different structure on that foundation. This is what they have successfully done for almost twenty years.

This musical foundation I speak of is a dark progressive kind of power metal with some thrashy additions. I think that the title of their 2004 effort A Portrait From the Abyss Within pretty much sums up how these guys sound. Their music also goes in blue I think. The vocals by Terence Holler are absolutely brilliant, impressive and emotive and suits the music of Eldritch just perfectly. The production is excellent, well weighted and the depth of the sound and the songs is just impressive, a soundscape few bands rival. The variation is good as well, the 53 minutes the album plays for just fly by and if anything one gets the sensation of the album being a tad on the short side which is excellent for an album as long as this one.

Fact is that the album is great, it is exciting and it is strong. Impressive is a word I come to think of, exciting is another one. Maybe the album is too much along the lines of what Eldritch usually does, a bit too predictable perhaps. Predictable might be the wrong word but there is a quite big familiarity to the album for those knowing Eldritch from before, unfortunately they offer no real surprises which is a bit of a shame. Not too much though as the album is really good, and I really like this album as everything about it makes for an enjoyable listen. And I mean really enjoyable not just good while listening and then you forget it. Maybe the strongest to date, or maybe not as there is some brilliance in the catalogue of these guys and this one is right up there.

Anyway, I can recommend this album as is is very strong. The strongest part of it is the title track which shines a lot in the classical Eldritch way, then we have Love From a Stone which is another piece of great music. So, if you want your music to be more than a dull remake of past music and want it to have that little extra, then this is something to take a closer look at. I like the taste of these tears, why don’t you try them as well? It will be worth it.

HHHHHHH