Eternal Evil – The Gates Beyond Mortality
Listenable Records
Release Date: 27/10/2023
Running Time: 40:57
Review by Richard Oliver
8/10
Continuing the worship of raw and old school metal sounds, Swedish thrashers Eternal Evil return with album number two “The Gates Beyond Mortality”. Their debut album “The Warriors Awakening… Brings The Unholy Slaughter!” was a suitably raw and vicious thrash assault that worshipped at the altar of bands such as Destruction, Dark Angel and Slayer and while “The Gates Beyond Mortality” is still very much old school Thrash worship, there is a definite maturing of the Eternal Evil sound with a slight melodic edge throughout and a few nods to traditional Heavy Metal. The unhinged and frantic Thrash attack can still be heard on cuts such as ‘Guerilla Warfare’ and ‘Immolation’, but the more controlled traditional heavy influences can be found on ‘Desecration Of Light’ and the title track which still burst forth with thrashing intensity, but are more three dimensional in.
The band put in a ferocious performance with frontman Adrian Tobar maintaining his unhinged vocal style from the debut album whilst also tearing out a cacophony of violent riffs and tearing solos alongside other guitarist Tobias Lindström. The rhythm section of Niklas Saari and Adam Schmidt on drums are the band’s battering ram ensuring these songs are as subtle as artillery rounds going off. The production is suitably raw but with perfect clarity and very much nails that vintage thrash sound compared to a lot of modern Thrash bands who can sound a bit overproduced.
Eternal Evil are far from the realms of originality but this matters not to an old school thrash addict such as myself who is a complete sucker for these young bands keeping the old sounds alive. So much contemporary mainstream metal is a repetitive yawnfest so it is refreshing to hear younger bands who are the antithesis of that and ripping out metal like it’s 1984. If gnarly old school thrash is your thing then Eternal Evil deserves 40 minutes of your time.
The Gates Beyond Mortality – Official Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. Depths Of A New Eternity
02. Guerilla Warfare
03. The Gates Beyond Mortality
04. Funeral Prayers
05. Signs Of Ancient Sin
06. Desecration Of Light
07. The Astral Below
08. Immolation
09. The Cursed Trilogy
LINE-UP:
Adrian Tobar – Lead Guitar and Vocals
Tobias Lindström – Lead Guitar
Adam Schmidt – Drums
Niklas Saari – Bass
LINKS:
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