Band:	Ethernal
Album:	Grim Ethernity
Style:	Progressive black metal
Release date:	2008
A review by:	Lucas

01. Grim Ethernity
02. Blood, Chains & Misery
03. Colossus
04. Echoes
05. Haggard
06. Black September

I must admit, if a band releases a début album called "Grim Ethernal", all my cheese-alert alarm bells start ringing. I seriously wonder why someone would choose such an utterly cliché name, unless it's a parody (but then they should've gone more over the top to make it obvious).

Anyway, my job is still to be objective about the music that people send me, so I'll do just that. And frankly, this stuff is not bad at all. The riffs are a bit simplistic, progressing on a single guitar string only, but at the same time they are easy to grasp and have some nice melodies. The vocals lack in power when he screams, but the huff whispers make up for that.

The lead guitar in the first track "Grim Ethernity" is epic as hell, soaring through the bloodred sky. As well as the choirs in "Blood, Chains & Misery", which sound very warm in relation to the music. At various other moments in their songs they suddenly shift to a grand, majestic sound to quickly fall back into simple, but catchy music. Doing this is not enough for me to label them "progressive", but it is something that you don't hear often.

At first I found the demo-esque production very annoying, especially the fuzzy, almost childish sound of the guitardistortion put me off. But after a while it become more natural and together with the simple, easy flowing riffs it all turns into a haze of noise. The more this little disc gets spins in my cd-player, the more I like it. At first it didn't appeal to me at all, but gradually I become more and more accustomed to the sound and the music offered. If you're into (Melodic) Black Metal I'd recommend you to give it a try as well.