The Eternal Battle

If you think of all DoomSword albums and play them in rapid succession, you'll have the feeling that The Eternal Battle shows a gradual descent (let's not call it decline by now) in terms of overall quality. Yet, no one would dare to deny that DoomSword are the leaders of the italian epic metal movement, so? Is it maybe that the whole scene is struggling? Is it that the four-piece hailing from Gallarate is running out of ideas? Not at all.

To explain this situation, let's make a comparison between DoomSword and Grand Magus: both bands started as epic doom outfits, highly praised by journalists and fans through the years, and both gradually set aside the doom components in their sound to focus on more classic stuff. If Grand Magus proved successful, with two so-close-to-perfection albums such as Iron Will and Hammer of the North, we can't say the same for Doomsword.

The Eternal Battle is a solid example of a kind of epic metal which is closer to Manilla Road than to Manowar, and seem to share some of the pros & cons of Mark Shelton's legendary band. Now, don't misunderstand me: we are speaking of a very good record, and given the band it could not be otherwise. The way metal is seen, far from being just a dull, rhetoric glorification of the "warrior's way", is that of a cultural path leading to the roots of our culture. Thus, the lyrics are excellent: take as an example Varusslacht, that tells of the battle of Teutoburg, where the Romans were defeated by Arminius and stopped from invading Germany, or the visionary and mystic The Fulminant.

Production-wise, we feel the effort to find an alternative way to the "Nuclear Blast grandeur"; it's just that this effort sometimes drains the energy out of the sound, making the album more difficult to enjoy at its best. Anyway, the main quality of The Eternal Battle is Deathmaster's performance: the singer opts for a softer, embracing, almost romantic style, enriching the songs with an unique melodic grace.

But the main criticism that can be made is about the songs themselves: the expected level of excellence is rarely reached, and when the music goes by with no emotional effect one cannot but think that the raison d'etre of epic metal is...the sense of epicness (duh!). Instead, this album seems like covered by an inch of dust, thus resulting in some songs just lacking the impact needed.

In fact, The Eternal Battle is an example of how epic metal should be done today, without screaming to the world nonsenses like "faith", "brotherhood", "true metal" (you know the rest): this despite DoomSword have somehow lost their golden touch that established them on top of the epic metal panorama.