Echoes of Eternity - As Shadows Burn

January 8, 2010

Reviewer: Chris

Echoes of Eternity is a female-fronted band from Los Angeles and has released its sophomore full-length, As Shadows Burn. The women-fronted bands have popped up like ragweed over the past decade since Liv Kristine and Theatre of Tragedy kicked open the “goth-metal” doors around ’95. Some have been damn good (Within Temptation, Elis, Nightwish), while most are quite forgettable. I think EoE falls somewhere in between.

Vocalist Francine Boucher has a very easy-flowing vocal delivery that often seems as if it’s playing catch-up with the pace of the music. While clearly not her fault (since her voice is pretty warm and almost too good in spots) the spotty double bass drumming seems to saturate the music for me and takes away from any mood or ambience attempting to be born. I just have a hard time getting into the music with any even-flow since I’m entranced by her voice one second, then obstreperously yanked away by the flow of the music which, at times, doesn’t seemingly fit.  It feels uninspired and ho-hum more often than it should. It’s about one step above Evanescence, yet a few leaps under Within Temptation or Leaves’ Eyes for my tastes. 

Tracks like “Descent of a Blackened Soul” and “Funeral in the Sky” are stand-outs among the pedestrian and often boring tracks. As I said, most of the songs fail to inspire or elevate me to any level of subconscious, where solid music is wont to take me on occasion. Boucher’s voice is the highlight of the album, but for the most part the music seems to be playing a game of chicken with her throughout, vying for dominance in the recording. While the band is musically capable, the music is too rife with leftovers from most European goth-metal bands’ cutting room floor. If you dig this style of goth-metal, then by all means have at it. If you’re seeking deep wells of meaningful songs that resonate long after the disc has stopped spinning you might duly consider looking elsewhere.  The same problem was evident on the band’s first release, The Forgotten Goddess, but that effort seemed to find its way into the subconscious a little more than this offering with tracks like “Towers of Silence” finding the formula much easier to mix.

Francine’s voice is actually the only thing that helped me get through an otherwise lackluster album. I hope for both of their sakes she finds a medium more suited to her delivery or the band finds a suitable cease-fire to what appears to be a war for dominant presence on the recording.

Release Date: September 22, 2009
Label: Nuclear Blast

TRACK LISTING

1.  Ten Of Swords
2.  A Veiled Horizon
3.  Memories Of Blood And Gold
4.  The Scarlet Embrace
5.  Descent Of A Blackened Soul
6.  Twilight Fires
7.  Buried Beneath A Thousand
     Dreams
8.  Letalis Deus
9.  Funeral In The Sky

Total playing time: 40:07

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