Band:	Aeternitas
Album:	Haunted Minds
Style:	Gothic metal, Symphonic metal
Release date:	November 20, 2020
A review by:	tominator

01. Destiny
02. Fountain Of Youth
03. The Unforgivable Sin
04. The Birthmark
05. Castles In The Air
06. Fallen Innocence
07. The Ring
08. Another Day
09. The Beautiful
10. The Final Path
11. My Haunted Mind

Competent at being average.

Haunted Minds is the kind of record you listen to and immediately forget about right afterwards. You could call it inoffensively unmemorable.

The production is solid. It's powerful and "epic" like you'd expect from a symphonic metal album. The symphonic touches are extremely present in the mix. Guitars have grit and the drums have a clear presence as well. I do wish though that there was a little bit more distinction between some of the drumkit pieces. It would add a bit more personality and depth to the record.

Vocally, the band delivers good performances. You get to hear female and male vocals throughout the album. I don't feel like the chemistry between the vocalists is entirely there. Or at least not as prominent as on the latest symphonic effort from Eternal Idol. Anyway, whereas that last one is a symphonic power metal album, Haunted Minds is a symphonic gothic metal album. Apparently... to me it sounds more like a straightforward symphonic metal album. Of course there isn't necessarily anything wrong with that. However, I do feel like the album would have benefitted from some extra gothic touches. It would help with the variety and spice things up a bit, because honestly, this album felt as dry as a cracker. It doesn't really do anything to excite the listener. It's solid music that for the most part keeps things moving, but without ever having a track that stands out or grabs your attention. Now, that also means that none of the tracks were unenjoyable to listen to.

The thing I was most impressed by is the flow. Song transitions are as smooth as an autocrat's re-election. Every song flows neatly into the other. Sometimes you don't even realise a new song has started. While I do feel like that's mostly due to the excellent attention to the flow, there's also the issue I described earlier, namely, not having a song that really stands out. The result is that Haunted Minds often feels homogeneous and lacks personality, and that's a shame, because Aeternitas brings very competent performances to the table. Again, everything feels really solid when we talk about the performances and the production. It's the creativity and songwriting that are a bit lacking here, and those two have such a big impact on the engagement of the listener that it unfortunately fails to have a lasting impact.

As a result, this record works well enough as background music. But as something to really listen to with your full attention, I feel that it hasn't enough depth to it. Maybe for really big fans of symphonic metal this might have a bit more to offer. But even for them, I think there are better and more interesting options out there. For me, this is the definition of an average record. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing that will bring you back to it either.