Eternal Tears Of Sorrow
Before The Bleeding Sun

This album is somewhat a blatant example of what represents the "evolution" or "devolution" of a band and how it manages to find the right balance between these two discriminators.

The Eternal Tears of Sorrow, it seems, with this "Before the Bleeding Sun" have chosen the middle path, indeed, releasing a work of various forms with many merits but, unfortunately, also many flaws. Ultimately, these Finns might have said to themselves, what does it take to make a good album, in our best tradition? Naturally, we reply, a good and healthy dose of Death Metal, rather clear nods to the hosts of certain strong “English and Scandinavian Gothic”, a sprinkle here and there of “Black” just to make the songs a bit meaner and perplexing, and maybe, let’s also throw in, as a filler, a massive injection of “Epic”, and the concept is complete. All these ingredients are found in "Before the Bleeding Sun", and, quite frankly, perhaps in a slightly too blatant manner.

Of course, the ideas of this Finnish band are always very interesting and fascinating, like the atmospheres wisely woven throughout the album, but it was certainly right to expect something more from a group that, in the past, has been able to skillfully combine Death Metal heavily indebted to bands like "Children Of Bodom", with refined and subtle melodies of typical Gothic origin, as well as demonstrate an undisputed aptitude for a cultural tradition that the Nordic one can be. And then, one finds themselves saying, even after a few listens, that they resemble "a little too much" the latest Paradise Lost, or Nightwish (I mean instrument structure, naturally), or even the same Children of Bodom, if it weren't that all these bands, due to their fame and the talent demonstrated so far, can afford to "recycle" their own repertoire, EToS cannot, and this is one of the huge flaws in this work that, for the rest, is almost unassailable: excellent production, a series of highly respectable artistic participations and collaborations (Jarmo Kylmanen from Scyron singing in "Red Dawn Rising", Miriam Renvag from Ram-Zet singing in "Sakura No Rei" and "Sinister Rain", and Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica singing in "Angelheart, Ravenheart"), overall enjoyable songs that have peaks and falls not too faulty, an exceptional skill in playing and composing that's out of the ordinary (for a Gothic band, of course), and an histrionic and ever-present desire to "give it all" even in a slightly convoluted manner.

So, without further ado, I can point out, as "peaks" (in a positive sense) of this work, certainly "Sweet Lilith of My Dreams" with its very successful repeated chorus chord and its gritty yet dreamy structure, "Another Me" harsh and powerful with highly respectable symphonic references, and "Angelheart, Ravenheart" poignant, melodic, epic and powerful, with its exceptional operatic structure, complex and enchanting, and Tony Kakko's voice that adds a touch of extra class to a track already excellent in itself and to be listened to hundreds of times.

For the rest, and I say this with sadness and regret, given that EToS are one of my favorite bands, I found only pomposity, themes a little too "rehashed," and the unbearable sensation of "already heard" which, in the long run, will only lead me to forget this work, to perhaps rediscover previous albums, ten leagues better than this one.