Eldritch
Eos

Italian progressive metallers Eldritch has been around for quite a while now, the debut album came back in 1995 and this one called Eos is their twelfth. I read in the promo mail about a new dawn, a new day, and the all-time peak of the band. I see them as a kind of blue hour style of music so perhaps this is a bit later, at dawn. Giving us an all-time peak might not be as easy as evolving slightly, especially not when you already have some brilliantly impressive in the catalogue. So, how about it? Is there any truth to what they claim? Is it their all-time peak?

Well, in terms of style it is familiar to what they have done before, the progressive rock elements, the heavy riffs, the electronic elements, it is all there again. They haven’t really stepped much away from what they have done but perhaps it is a bit brighter, like ending with a Bon Jovi-cover. The production is excellent, giving us an impressive and dynamic soundscape that is crowned by the excellent vocal delivery of Terence Holler who happens to be one of the best vocalists in the genre. At first glance it isn’t that much new but looking beneath the surface you quickly hear that it is another fresh sounding album where the band has once again evolved and done something new. The thing about the good bands is that they manage to keep their albums sounding new and fresh each time, an uncommon trait that Eldritch certainly master.

Eos is varied and it is dynamic, the playing time is sensible, and it is an album that is very inviting to play repeatedly. The claim about the all-time best and that sort of talk seems somewhat nonsensical as I think they have some better albums in their impressive catalogue, but that doesn’t mean that Eos isn’t a brilliant album as it certainly is. No one with a taste in music will think of this as anything but excellent, it works on so many levels with so many great songs, so much hit potential, yet so much complexity. These Italians certainly knows and masters their craft to perfection and each album is a treat, even with high expectations it is not really possible to be disappointed with a wonderful album such as this one.

Stumbles close to an even higher rating, but objectively you cannot overlook what the earlier effort has done, and this isn’t as exciting and ground-breaking as the absolute highlights. Still, it would be pretty stupid not to look at this one of you like great music, it is an album that offers almost everything you could wish from an album – but it still doesn’t make the claim of the all-time peak true, but who the hell cares when the album is this great.

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