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On disc: Eternal Flight



Positive Rage - Claudia Ehrhardt - 7 stars
Diminished Reality, Elegies And MysterieS - Lars Bjørn - 5 stars


http://eternalflight.free.st







Diminished Reality, Elegies And MysterieS

Diminished Reality, Elegies And MysterieS
(YesterRock Records - 2011)


Eternal Flight splashes their third album into the pool of metal albums from 2011, and what saves it from sinking to the bottom? There may be different opinions about this new CD, but the gentlemen Gerard Fois and Julien Bouvier gets a lot of help from well-known guest performing guitarists like Mark McGee, Chris Caffery and Rob Love Magnusson. But the real good thing about the album is the strong powerful vocals from Gerard Fois, he holds the quality without falling through the safety net, even if the musical displays are of lesser quality. Firedancer is the song with disturbing keyboard effects, but gets saved by good and constructive elements in the heavy metal and plussed up by the power vocals from Gerard Fois. Freedom Is My Race also has the refreshing pace and brightness where the listeners can cheer with the band in refreshing guitar-driven metal rock. The song Goodbye is a unique one with soft keyboard intros leading into explosive guitar frenzy rock where Fois manages to lay his great vocal work on top of the achievements to get a great and interesting song. But the other material do not live up to the standards the album could have ambitions of, Release To Unreal, Black Sun, The Meeting, The Tower, Fantasea can only add unstructured, muddy and massive useless power to the picture. The last song saves a little bit of the total view, a tribute to Ronnie James Dio where Gerard Fois gives his best in respect to RJ Dio and gets the same bite and fistfulness as Dio had when he performed the great song Night People. Good idea to make a cover version of a classic, when it's done with the same attitude as Dio had.


5 stars

Lars Bjørn
 

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Positive Rage

Positive Rage
(Cruz del Sur - 2004)


The first impression you always get when you look at the cover. The art work of Positive Rage remind me of some 80's cover... As it's done by Geoffrey Gillespie who did covers for Doro and Warlock, it's not really a surprise. Musically the French band is presenting heavy metal with power and progressive elements. A melange of 80's influenced heavy metal, power metal, catchy hooks and progressiveness. Opening with The Masks Will Fall which gives you an idea about Eternal Flight. Technically well done, but at most tracks the guitars could have a more aggressive sound... Singer Gerard Fois is obviously influenced by 80's singers - partly he sounds like the young Bruce Dickinson (pre-Iron Maiden) - and add some high screams here and there. Fois has a good range, but when he gets aggressive, he could push a bit harder.

The track Guardian lacks aggressive, screaming guitars in the beginning, so that they can step back when Fois starts singing. The refrain is catchy, but still there is something missing. Not bad, but.... Some songs just lack some inspiration. One of the better tracks is All We Are which is bit more progressive, but still heavy and has some symphonic touch. The vocals could be a bit more upfront... Unfortunately the refrain is not catchy, otherwise this one would stack out.

At New World Christophe Offredi's guitar is a bit more aggressive which fits very well to the up-tempo tune. Slowly starts Secret Place - only keyboards and vocals. A balladesque tune which let me think of early Queensrÿche... The guitar solo fits well to the atmosphere of the song and Christophe didn't try to impress the listener with complexity, instead plays very emotional. Nothing to complain. Unfortunately the good impression didn't got backed up with the following track. Beyond (The Golden Gates) is a typical up-tempo heavy metal song, and actually that's the problem, coz it's something you heard a thousand times. Prelude is spoken words and a kind of intro for Back Into The Light (Renaissance). A heavy, epic rocker based on guitar riffing and a keyboard woben sound floor. No surprises here, but a decent song. A highlight is the fast Morphoenix. Catchy, with power and some aggression... A screaming guitar or heavy riffing, again the sound is what I have to criticize. But a good one. I don't want to sound too negative, but I also don't want to create too high expectations. They have talent and so it's probably just a lack of experience or they need a better producer. I have no idea who produced the album, perhaps it's done by the band, then I can just recommend to work in future with a producer. A good producer won't just give you a better sound, he'll also give some advice. But still enjoyable.

Not a bad album, but far from a place in the top 10 of the year. If the French will make it to the next level, they have to improof the song writing. There are no surprising moments and as I mentioned before, the guitars should be more aggressive, but probably a change of the guitar sound would be enough... But that's not my profession, so this is just a guess.

Listen to tracks like The Masks Will Fall, Secret Place, New World and Morphoenix.


7 stars

Claudia Ehrhardt
 

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