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Rating: Who are the "Eternal Tears of Sorrow"? They are a Finnish band that has been unfortunate. A lot of bad luck.
Despite producing excellent music and being recognized as "talented" composers in the Swedish Metal scene, they have always been overshadowed by bands with similar character and genes, but much more well-known and perhaps even less valid. Of course, these are just my conjectures, stemming from a personal opinion that I don't expect others to share, but there’s no denying that ETOS, despite having talent and an enviable originality, even making catchy music with all the specific trimmings for a "Swedish" band, they have never broken through and are largely ignored.
Their uniqueness lies in the musical proposal they put forward: a soft and enchanting Death Metal, stripped of the murderous and charging ferocity, with loops of synth and various samples, with lyrics that recall Norse history, and an image that very much resembles Gothic bands. Stated like this, one might think they are the usual "soup" produced by the Swedish lands, but surprisingly, it is not so, for two main reasons which this CD demonstrates undeniably: the innate talent and the allure of feeling like you're amid the northern ice in the long nights devoid of sunlight, while listening to them.
"A Virgin And A Whore" is a "half-concept", meaning it doesn’t specifically tell a story developing track by track, but rather narrates its setting and atmosphere. From the very first song "Aurora Borealis", you immediately feel immersed in the Viking universe, made of swords, blood, honor, and memory, with the wonderful and refined instrumental parts filled with keyboards, soaring through the leaden and twilight skies of the "great North". But there are plenty of beautiful songs in this album. Each has a structure that seems to follow the end of the previous one; each demonstrates a mastery of instruments and vocal inspiration above par; each is a continuous birth of true and very sad images: those of a people without identity, with a glorious past and a flat, gray present. And there is the rebellion against all this, a rebellion crossing the centuries that sings of paganism and cultural freedom, against the belligerent Christian logic, which history shows took hold late and poorly in those lands at the world's edge, where ice and steppes dominate.
So why not give ETOS the opportunity to be re-evaluated by those who do not know them? Why not let oneself plunge into the Viking battles described in "Heart of Wildness", "Fall of Man", "Aeon" and "Prophetian"?
I assure you that they truly deserve a chance, and thus, the judgment is yours.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
08 Blood of Hatred (03:12)
[Music: Kokko & Hiltula]
[Lyrics: Vetelainen]
All alone with bitter thoughts
I swear on the name of my rage
Those who made me suffer will now taste my hate
By the blood of hatred
I seal my wounds so deep
Now it's time to get back what belongs to me
I feel how my strength is growing...
I want to see some more bleeding...
I wait for a dawn to come
When the final war takes the place
And be sure you are the first one who will fall
I laugh on your grave
Instead of praising hymns
Your life belongs to me as well as your soul
By the rusty blade of vengeance
I caress your skin
I'm your saviour from the darker side of the grave
Insane smile now on my face
I cut another wound
It's payback time and I'm the one who pays
09 Aeon (05:45)
Let the fire burn
And the ashes drown your past,
Let the rain fall down
And wash the ruins of your life
When the wind is blowing
It dries the sands of decades
A new growth is born
And it is ready for a new flame
At the moment of silence I feel like I am the one,
Who was chosen to stay and find out where this all begun
Fire is burning me
Desire to set us free
The choirs of glory
Have now turned to silence,
The sound of the aeon,
The arias of the oldest ones
Once so beautiful a flower
Has now lost its blaze,
The young fallen child
Is now sleeping so pale
At the moment of silence I feel like I am the one,
Who was chosen to stay and find out where this all begun
Fire is burning me
Desire to set the beast free
The wild stream of time is surging...
It's flowing free...
It has a grip on me...a grip on you...Eternally...
The dark dreams of the past are calling with agonies...
They are haunting me...haunting you...Eternally...
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