Upon hearing the name Eternal Tears of Sorrow I was immediately filled with apprehension and powerful feelings of derision toward a band I have never heard. This is not the fault of the band per se, simply the fact that the name sounds decidedly ‘emo’ and thus conjured up images of floppy haired fifteen year olds crying into their milkshakes and writing poetry about the pain of life. It was with dread that I placed this album into my stereo, suitably prepared to hit the stop button the minute I heard whiny vocals about the pain of relationships. Suffice to say I was pleasantly surprised, as instead of being aurally assaulted by an emo record I was instead treated to a shockingly awesome mix of melodic death metal, prog and thrash all spiced up with a pinch of gothic rock.

The five members of the band include a drummer, two guitarists, a keyboardist and a bassist who also covers the vocal duties. The band hail from Finland and while this is there fifth release and second name (they began life as MDC in 1993) this is my first experience of the band, so apologies to long time fans as I am unable to compare this to previous work.

The towering strength of this album lies in its diversity. While there is a basic sound at the root of all EToS’s music, namely death metal, they have managed to contort the genre’s template in a variety of interesting if not completely unique ways that has resulted in an album that will most definitely hold the listener’s interest if nothing else. Every trick they pull out of the hat to make everything more interesting has been done elsewhere before however I struggle to remember a time when it’s all been mixed together in this fashion. It’s more than likely all been done before but to me it sounds fairly fresh.

I feel the easiest way to describe the variety on offer is to offer you some examples of it from the first few tracks. Album opener Sweet Lillith of My Dreams fuses sweeping guitar riffs with heavy use of synth, resulting in a storming track that’s part Dark Tranquility, part prog freak out. Another Me begins with Maiden-esque pomposity and utilises brutal death metal vocals and complex soloing to deliver a track with a completely different tone to the first one. This is then followed by Red Dawn Rising which kicks off with a beautiful classical keyboard piece shortly accompanied by a thrashy riff and well performed clean vocals. The vocals later go back to death metal growls but are then accompanied by female vocals. Superb stuff.

This off kilter mixing and matching of styles continues the entire way through the record. However very honourable mention must go to the final track, Angelheart, Ravenheart, which is a sweeping, epic, cello (I think) ridden masterpiece that, with the exception of some cheesy spoken word vocals at the start, ranks up there with the best tracks I’ve heard this year.

I have only two criticisms to bear and they are comparably minor niggles. One is that while at times the vocalist is superb there are others he sounds bit too over dramatic and heavily accented making the delivery sound mildly hammy. This may not bother everyone but it does grate on me a little. The other niggle is a rather bizarre one and not really a negative. The proggy tone that infuses many of the tracks makes me wish that many of them were longer, I simply feel a bit more experimentation in some of the tracks would have made them even better, as shown in the final track the band can pull this off very well so I would definitely like to see more of it.

Many bands discover what they’re good at and tend to stick to it, this often results in albums with some good songs and others that become lost in a sea of mediocrity. EToS however try out so many different things that if some tracks are not to your taste it will more than likely be a dislike of the tone or style rather than a feeling that you’ve heard it all before…on the last track. I certainly don’t know where this lot have been hiding (Maybe I’m just a bit of a retard for not noticing them) but if, like me you haven’t experienced their unique take on the genre yet, I strongly urge you to do so.