Band:	Colmaar
Album:	Eternel
Style:	Post-metal
Release date:	July 2024
A review by:	musclassia

01. Initiatique
02. Ancestrale
03. Implacable
04. Hypnotique
05. Éternel
06. Funeste
07. Épilogue

There’s many a story of major bands drastically changing their style and featuring a revolving door of musicians while retaining their original name, alienating portions of their fanbase in the process. At the opposite end of the spectrum you have a group maintaining the same line-up that they’ve had since inception, remaining in the same genre, and still deciding to rebrand completely, as When Icarus Falls have done here.

My first ever review on Metal Storm was for a release from When Icarus Falls, specifically their 2014 EP Circles. For a first attempt, it was a reasonably good review, and it was a very solid release that served as a shining example of the post-metal genre. What’s more, their subsequent album Resilience, without reinventing the wheel, had what I felt was a relatively distinctive voice within the genre, riding the crest between post-rock and post-metal while making effective use of electronics and an uncredited yet intriguing, almost harpsichord-esque string instrument (Tuareg blues was namedropped by the band as an influence). The release of Resilience was followed by a prolonged silence, before When Icarus Falls suddenly announced that their new record, Eternel, was complete. The name on said album was unfamiliar, however; the band decided that the evolution that their music had undergone during their quasi-hiatus was sufficiently extensive as to warrant a rebranding, and thus this new album marks the ‘debut’ of Colmaar.

It feels misleading to refer to this as a debut album, however, as Colmaar’s five-person line-up is identical to the one established upon the formation of When Icarus Falls in 2007. Now, it’s surprising to see a band with such consistency in personnel deciding on a change in name, but perhaps if this record represented an unrecognizable evolution in style, the change would be a logical one. However, if you asked me to put a genre tag on Eternel, there would be absolutely no ambiguity: this is post-metal, albeit post-metal that leans heavily towards post-rock. Considering exactly the same could be said of Resilience, I do find myself slightly bemused by the name change, but Colmaar evidently decided it was representative of their journey, so who am I to argue to the contrary.

In fairness, Eternel is not by any means a direct retread of Resilience. Those Tuareg influences and unexpected electronic/instrumental sounds I mentioned earlier? All gone. Instead, Eternel has an expansive, earthly sound to it that really takes my mind to late-2000s Cult Of Luna such as Somewhere Along The Highway and Eternal Kingdom. Now, this obviously plays right into my tastes, and as much as I’m disappointed not to see a continuation of the trajectory plotted by the releases under the When Icarus Falls moniker, Eternel is an album I can firmly enjoy on its own merits.

One element I’m not necessarily thrilled to see carried over from past efforts are the prolonged impassioned spoken word passages that appear on tracks such as “Initiatique” and “Ancestrale”; when placed against the subtle, contemplative instrumental soundscapes on the former track, this spoken word already feels a tad intrusive, but the repeated use of this approach across the album to follow only cements my scepticism towards it. The harsher, pained vocals of Diego Mediano also retain the imperfections that they’ve had in the past, but I have an appreciation of them. As far as the instrumentals are concerned, “Ancestrale” has reverberating guitar tones, gloomy, intricate interplay between instruments and percussion (including tambourine) that are unmistakably from the Cult Of Luna playbook, and the track strikes a good balance between patience and catharsis.

After having given the album a few listens, I find myself slightly ambivalent about the changes that have occurred during the transformation into Colmaar. On the one hand, I felt that When Icarus Falls managed to establish a sound that was fairly recognizable as their own within the post-metal scene, so it is slightly underwhelming to see the revamped version of the band releasing something that is so clearly derivative of a specific band. On the flip side, for all the numerous post-metal bands that are almost by reflex described as sounding similar Cult Of Luna, not many of them capture the ‘loneliness in the wilderness’ vibe that the Swedish heavyweights pulled off during the particular period of their career that I pinpointed above, and Colmaar do a clearly above-average job of effusing those feelings of being alone with one’s thoughts amidst a beautiful yet sparse landscape.

Eternel manages to capture those sentiments and emotions fairly consistently as well; “Implacable” has a moving balance between restrained heaviness, soaring tremolo melody and sedate, reflective use of ringing chords that touches one’s soul. “Hypnotique” is a bit more percussive, with repeated pounding tom hits serving as a driving force for the almost ambient guitar arrangements. “Funeste” has a very patient trajectory from quiet origins towards an eventually voluminous climax, but even in its densest moments it keeps the cleaner elements involved in the song’s texturing.

Ultimately, Eternel is a bit too derivative to truly shine as a next step for When Icarus Falls/Colmaar, and it also lacks much in the way of clear standout and memorable moments to live up to the legacy of its self-evident inspirations. However, despite the saturation of the post-rock and post-metal scenes, there’s fewer albums out there than one might expect that truly scratch that Somewhere Along The Highway itch, and Eternel does it better than most, so I would still definitely recommend to anyone with as strong an affinity for that era of Cult Of Luna as myself.