Band:	The Eternal
Album:	Sleep Of Reason
Style:	Gothic doom metal, Gothic metal
Release date:	September 2005

01. Awaken, Arise
02. Everlasting
03. To Drown
04. A Soul Undone
05. Hollow Inside
06. In My Skin
07. A Dreams End
08. Beneath The Soil
09. Sleep Of Reason
10. The Dying Light
11. Weight Of Empathy

The Eternal return with their sophomore album entitled "Sleep Of Reason" a worthy follow up to their debut "The Sombre Light Of Isolation".
Things have changed since their debut album, after several spins of this album, the whole atmosphere feels less darker and sombre than their debut. Also, the band goes for 2 types of songs now, some are very Doomy and some others are quite Gothic and I dare to say "commercial".

But fear not, this is not a bad album in any way, is just a natural progression, nobody wants to hear the same album twice.
The album starts with a short intro called "Awaken, Arise" and immediately cuts to "Everlasting" a damn catchy song that has written "radio hit" all over.
"To Drown" is a return to the darker roots of the band, this song showcases the powerful and dramatic vocals of Mark Kelson. "Hollow Inside" is a awesome ballad with a lot of memorable moments, "A Dream's End" is another upbeat catchy song in the vein of "Everlasting" while "The Dying Light" brings again the gloom and melancholy that we're used to when listening The Eternal.

Definitively this album is much more varied than its predecessor, the range of influences seems wider and the trademarks of the band also expanded, there's still the marvellous keyboards and vocals as always, but the album definitively feels different.

Special mention to the artwork and presentation, totally top notch, the cover art designed by artist extraordinaire Travis Smith is eye candy for anyone into this kind of sombre art. (as a matter of fact, the cover art was inspired in a Francisco Goya etching).

As I stated before, this is a worthy successor to their first album, while the level of gloom and despair has gone down a notch, you can still rely on those melancholic atmospheres that The Eternal always deliver. To any fan of Gothic or Doom Metal, this album is totally recommended.