Band – Eternal Storm
Album – A Giant Bound To Fall
Country of Origin – Spain
Genre – Progressive Death Metal
Release Date – February 16, 2024
Label – Transcending Obscurity Records
Author – Hayduke X
Today, we reach into the future to bring you an exclusive peek at what is shaping up to be an early contender next year. A Giant Bound To Fall, the title track from the band’s sophomore album, takes a swim in post-metal waters, a subtle shift away from the melodic and progressive death metal found in earlier work, and across much of this album as well. The track is dense, haunting, and richly layered. The band themselves have some thoughts to share, which I’ll include here, but be sure to give the stunning track a listen, then drop further down for my full album review.
Bassist/guitarist Daniel Maganto comments about the track:
The title track from our sophomore album took a while to get completed! I remember Jaime showing me some mellotron sketches some time in 2015 and I was wondering when we would use them, as I loved what I heard. A few years later more tweaks were added and we started working on it properly. I believe it is more epic and direct than most of our tracks and there aren’t as many layers as in the other songs from the albums, at least instrumental-wise. Having an old friend of the band like Bobby from Persefone and Nami performing some additional vocals was also a great thing for us!
Guitarist and main songwriter Jaime Torres, adds:
The genesis of the track started with me experimenting with a mellotron plugin way back in 2014 and adding some guitars on top of it, only to be relegated to the “nice ideas” folder. It would not be until 2017, when we were recording “Come the Tide”, that I would fall upon this idea again while browsing my laptop during a break, and thought this had to be used for a track for the next record; but still, couldn’t see where it would fit.
Some time later, I was chatting with Daniel on our way to our then rehearsal place and considering the idea of crafting a track with a denser vibe, a little bit closer to post metal acts like Cult of Luna, Neurosis or Isis, then merge it with more traditional melodic extreme metal elements. That very same night, while having a shower, I had the first half of the heavy section of the track quite clear in my head, so I wrapped myself in a towel and recorded the whole thing before it would vanish. Dinner had to wait. And once this was done I could finally see that the mellotron idea would be a good fit as an intro for the song.
The rest of the track came quite naturally, we decided to throw in a few acoustic guitar overdubs, Flys brought a wide array of vocal styles, our friend Bobby from Persefone did some guest vocals at the end of the song, and Daniel came up with a sweet bass line for the acoustic ending right at the recording sessions (a bass line that in spanish could be sang as “Bello Magantito, bello Magantito, toca el bajito, toca el bajito”).
Quite crazy to think how sometimes a song can come up in just an evening or a few days, and others it can evolve slowly across the years from an almost forgotten idea, being twisted and shaped by the inputs of every member, right up until the final moments in the studio!
Do you remember Killdozer? If not, look it up for all the details. Essentially, a Colorado man welded together a near-indestructible metal plated bulldozer, and went on a rampage through town. The album “A Giant Bound To Fail” is a little like Killdozer, if the exterior had been painted by Spanish Impressionist Adolfo Guiard. The textures are rich and beautiful, ethereal yet deeply layered, and underneath it all, a crushing piece of heavy machinery.
The main lineup of Eternal Storm is something of an enigma, in the sense that the credits show the current trio to each hold very similar roles. The promotional materials list the following members and their respective roles: Daniel R. Flys (vocals [lead], guitars, keyboards, bass), Jaime Torres (guitars, vocals, keyboards, bass, fretless bass), and Daniel Maganto (bass, guitars [additional], vocals [additional]). Basically, everybody seems to do a little bit of (almost) everything. I appreciate the collaborative spirit of the project, but I do wonder what happens if and when they play live. For those paying attention, no drums are listed, but there are certainly drums on the album. In this case, studio drummer Gabriel Valcázar (Wormed, Ernia) took care of that role. There are an additional eight guest musicians who contribute to various tracks throughout the album.
Like the Killdozer, the album is musically full of different parts pieced together in a way that creates a massive, indestructible force. At its core, most of the album is melodic death metal, but this is basically just the bulldozer part of the operation. This part alone is well constructed of melodic riffing, drumming ranging from rock to double bass and much in between, vocals that cycle through many styles and moods, and creative bass lines acting as a sort of glue to hold it all together. To this foundation, elements of progressive metal, djent, occasional small touches of metalcore, sometimes tremolo riffing, post-metal, and more are seamlessly welded, like the steel plates of the Killdozer. Then, the layers of stunningly beautiful atmosphere are added to the core of the music, much like the idea of Guiard painting the exterior of Killdozer.
The album “A Giant Bound To Fail” is a beautiful, powerful statement from this band in only its sophomore release. The title track streaming above is perhaps not representative of the whole, but it would be hard to pick one which is. The members use the various styles of metal as different mediums in their quest to create their artistic statement and are not limited by one single metal trope. Rather, they gladly use the full palette available to them.
The album is available for pre-order on the Transcending Obscurity Bandcamp or website.
Biography: Hayduke X has been writing for MoshPitNation since June of 2016. He is also a contributor to The Metal Wanderlust. Prior to joining the MoshPitNation team, Hayduke published reviews on his own blog Rage and Frustration. In addition, he has DJ’ed an online metal radio show of the same name as his blog, written for TOmetal.com, done interviews for Metal Rules, and collaborated with The Art of B Productions to create video interviews with a wide variety of bands.
