Eternal Internment

Metal sub-genre blending is something that I’ve learned to be cautiously optimistic about. Sometimes it yields an intriguing new direction that warrants further exploration, at other times it comes off as confused, disjointed, and bereft of any direction. Eternal Internment tend a bit towards the latter result in their unconventional effort at merging the creeping early USPM tendencies of Crimson Glory with speed/thrash. Part of the problem may be that the band thinks that the progressive route of long songs with slow development and ballad additives are a good idea in this capacity, but for the most part, their problem is their singer, who doesn’t have Midnight’s range or his strong command of that sinister witch voice, yet tries desperately to emulate both regardless.

About half of this album consists of ambient keyboard sections, the other half a mishmash of traditional and thrash metal ideas that are thrown together in an extremely disorganized fashion. They do pull off the sinister element insofar as the keyboard work is concerned, particularly on “The Libertine”, which probably should have kicked off the album rather than close it off. And on the positive side of the mix, “Virtual Madness” is a pretty solid song, mostly because it consistently sticks to emulating the mid 80s haunting USPM ideas and doesn’t attempt to get overly progressive on the quiet sections. “Tempting Fate” would be a good song as well, staring off with a sinister set of thrash riffs and a wicked guttural vocal performance, but then the thing just fades away into a near 4 minute ballad section and doesn’t pick up again until the very end.

Most of the rest of the listen tends to consist of shorter versions of the same song disorganization the plagues the opener. Long, drawn out ballad sections are the norm for these guys, and the low grade production and mid-quality mixing job makes most of the quiet sections just sound thin and uninviting. The cover of “Masque Of The Red Death” is a bit of an improvement, but Jack Aragon’s vocals are just too forced and over the top to do justice to Midnight’s wildly ingenious display on the original. The music behind it is actually a near perfect rendition of the original song, save the thin sounding drums, and shows Aragon doing a much better job insofar as guitar work is concerned. Most of the lead work on here is actually quite promising, and when there’s actually metal riffs to speak of, things start to come together quite nicely.

There is a fair amount of unrealized potential here, most of it being the case because of a poor sense of song structure. This band should concentrate more on writing songs and less on trying to come up with inventive compositions, because they don’t work very well in this format. They also need to either get a singer who doesn’t overdo the growled parts and can hit the high notes with a stronger voice, or Aragon needs to lighten up a little on the dramatics. This is not something that can be out and out recommended, but it might be worth it to keep an eye on these guys to see if they tweak their sound a bit for the better.