CoC : Eternal Tears of Sorrow - Chaotic Beauty : Review

Eternal Tears of Sorrow - _Chaotic Beauty_
(Spinefarm Records, 2000)
by: Pedro Azevedo (8 out of 10)

You wouldn't have been the first to mistake Eternal Tears of Sorrow for a doom band, for obvious reasons, but in fact dynamic, melodic and slightly blackened metal is what they play on _Chaotic Beauty_. Whilst able to bring to my mind bands such as In Flames and Amorphis, EToS are also rather fast and bombastic at times -- and equally likely to slow down and increase the melody level as well. This Finnish ensemble shows considerable talent in creating memorable, dynamic and entertaining metal with plenty of melody and a reasonable dose of aggression. The latter could, in my opinion, have still been greater. It would have further prevented EToS from sounding a bit "sweet" in spite of the speed their music often reaches -- their use of keyboards is also sometimes the guilty part there. A cover of Edge of Sanity's "Black Tears" from _Purgatory Afterglow_ is also included; decently adapted to EToS's own style, but less than satisfying due to the replacing of Dan Swano's clean vocals with rather monotonous snarls. Overall, this is much more of an immediately enjoyable album (that's perhaps especially well suited for fans of Swedish melodic death metal) than something to find a great deep meaning in, but sometimes this is all one needs.

(article published 20/11/2000)

ALBUMS
7/7/1999	D Rocher	8	Eternal Tears of Sorrow - Vilda Mannu

DEMOS
11/10/1996	G Filicetti	3	Eternal Tears of Sorrow - Sinner's Serenade