Fatum Aeternum
Singing Songs of Desperation

Label: Independent
Three similar bands: Ancient Tale/Gevolt/Eternal Grey

Rating: HHHHHHH (4/7)
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm
Tracks
1. Depression
2. Prepare for War
3. N.I.F.
4. Chemicals of Loneliness
5. Would
6. Toy


Band:
Steve Gershin - Bass, Percussion, Vocals
Evelyn Shor - Vocals, Violin
Dror Goldstein - Drums
Alex Zvulun - Guitars


Discography:
This Dream Is Dead (2011)
The Sermon (EP 2012)
The Darkest Hour (EP 2015)
Luxury Overdose (2018)


Guests:
Max Soulfly - Vocals (additional tr.1)
Vitaly Zvulun Vocals (add. tr. 2, 3, 6)
Oleg Fiafari - Vocals (add. track 2, 3, 6)
Julia Fiafari Kaplan - Vocals (additional track 2, 3, 6)


Info:
Recorded, mixed and mastered at AG Studio (Tel Aviv, Israel) by Alex Zvulun

Released 2020-05-03
Reviewed 2020-10-01

Links:
fatum-aeternum.com
bandcamp
youtube


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An Israeli band singing songs of desperation, it isn’t the most common thing that we get Israeli bands to review. This is a band with two EPs and two albums in their discography, this is the third EP called Singing Songs of Desperation – the first release was made in 2011. The cover of this new one looks pretty gothic, pretty ordinary too and not particularly exciting. So lets see if the content inside that cover is exciting.

It is gothic metal; they have a nice dynamic going between male and female vocals. That vocal dynamics is probably the only thing they make different from all the other legions of gothic metallers out there as they have a fairly typical sound otherwise and even the male vocals are mostly typical of the Goth genre and not very original. The production decent but not really that special, I also think more dynamic sound and more blackness would have been quite beneficial for this album. The variation is pretty much okay and I think it is pretty sensible that they make this an EP considering that any longer than this might have been a bit too long.

I find this album to be quite agreeable, even good. I especially like the tracks Prepare for War and Chemicals of Loneliness, as those are a bit more interesting than the rest. But it is a decent EP all the way through, a bit stylistically uninteresting but helped by the dynamic between vocalists. Had it been darker and with an actual sense of singing songs of desperation instead of just saying, it would have been quite outstanding – or at least really good.

It could certainly be worth checking out Fatum Aeternum and their latest effort as I think that it is a really solid effort that might be quite interesting for the right audience. It is quite obvious that these guys have some things going for them, they just need to dare to think more outside the boxes if they want to be more than a band releasing solid albums.

HHHHHHH