Eterknight – ‘Forgotten Tales’ (2023)
Rating: 8/10
Release: 21 April 2023
Label: Independent
Eterknight is a band from Mexico whose music is described on the web as a mixture of epic and symphonic metal with death and folk components. They’ve been active for 12 years and now it’s time for them to present us their debut album.
When I decided to pick up and review this album I was a bit skeptical about what I was about to put myself into. The band’s aforementioned description just left me too disoriented and I admit I was afraid this work was just not for me. But when I started listening to the tracks I got surprised in a nice way. And now I must say: this is an original work.
When fast-paced drums opened the 2nd track “Last Ride” I was already preparing myself for some very harsh vocals in the style of Zmey Gorynich and similar acts. What I would find out some seconds later, instead, was an interesting combination of fast tempos, clean vocals and epic keyboards in the background.
There is still some section of harsher vocals but the clean parts are predominant and this makes the recording quite original in my opinion. Just to let you understand: 4th track Dancing Forest is opened by nature sounds and a 3/4 section and I couldn’t help thinking about Falkenbach’s Heathenpride and drums in some songs of Svartby, all at the same time. Come to think of it, the two bands could probably be two different sources of inspiration for the Mexican band, both from different points of view. But what’s sure is that they do not turn their music into an unbalanced pot of different styles, so don’t be afraid of getting confused at first because this band certainly knows what they’re doing.
Going on with the listening, it gets clear that epic is the main ingredient for Eterknight’s recipe – there is a massive amount of orchestration during the totality of the song which also follows the clean vocals choruses note by note, as well as flute sections here and there in the tracks; I would think about some heavier Folkodia just to let you understand. The songs’ length isn’t too high, it averages about 3 or 4 minutes per track with the only exception being the last track Forgotten Tales clocking in at 6 minutes. But we’re talking about fast rhythm songs with evident power and death metal influences so that’s nothing to worry about.
If 12 years was the time needed for this to come out, then that’s certainly worth it, especially considering that this album was released independently. If you’re in epic folk metal acts like Folkodia or the aforementioned bands then you can’t lose this one too. Now let’s just hope this one will be the first step of a long journey.. very nice work.
Tracklist
- Prophecy
- Last Ride
- Heathen Land
- Dancing Forest
- Tavern
- Stone of might
- Kingdom’s Army
- Farewell
- Immortal Knight
- Forgotten Tales ft. Vincent Jones (Æther Realm)