Heaven's Gate

Eternal Of Sweden have a weird name – you'd think they could just pick a more original name if theirs was so contrived they had to add their country of origin onto the end of it. But fortunately, I am not in the business of reviewing band names; I'm reviewing the music. And the music fucking kicks ass.

This is power metal of the old Nocturnal Rites school, with slick, heavy guitars and gritty, steely vocals belting out cool, badass choruses. There's a fair bit of 80s-style keyboards here, too, like Edguy was doing around the time of Rocket Ride, or maybe like a better Masterplan. The whole sound is extremely polished and consonant, almost like a prog band might do things, but the music is more aggressive and visceral than the polish might indicate. Singer Christer Gärds is a real find – he is just great, with a real feel for vocal melodies that never come out of your head. He has a low, Dio-like midrange he uses for a lot of the album, but on the more epic moments he almost reminds me of Daniel Heiman – check opener “Ruins”; god damn he's good. I had to check out the MA page when I first heard him, thinking it had to be a singer who was in a bunch of other bands and who I had heard before. But nope – he's basically brand new with Eternal Of Sweden. What a great find.

This is a very consistent album, too, with highlights like the title song with its dramatic, dark sense of melody, the stomping “Freedom Now” and the aggressive “Eternal Fire” sure to be crowdpleasers. It's closer “Burning With Pride” that ends up being the most affecting, though, with its trancey keys, groovy riffs and unforgettable chorus. I always appreciate a good album closer, one with style and aplomb, and this one nails it – it feels like a conclusion and works to sort of encapsulate the entire experience of the songs before it. So that's good.

If there's a fault to this album, it's that the songs are too often stuck in the more midpaced tempo, and I think too much of that gets a bit monotonous. It wouldn't hurt the band to have a few faster belters on their next album, I think – as is, the songs are all engaging, but with too many midpaced ones in a row, a lot of them start to run together on multiple listens. They still sound good, but a more varied set of song tempos next time out would really elevate them to the next level.

I think this is a band on the cusp of greatness, and I won't be surprised if their next album really catapults them to the A-list of the power metal genre. I'll be watching them.