This is a difficult album for me to review. After three above average albums and one stellar one we get Eidolon, in your face aggression, straightforward song structures and a distinct lack of intense melodic lines. If I had never heard this band before I would be giving it high marks but after the amazingly intricate and flamboyant Century Media debut album Séance, I was expecting something different than what Eidolon presents. I wonder if their commitment to extensive touring led them to do this album of more aggressive less technical songs. I’ll get one worrisome point out of the way; the new vocalist is a keeper. He definitely gets the essence of Dark Fortress.

The power is there, the polish is there, and the sound quality is just as good as Séance. Maybe the disc is a bit overly polished for some tastes but it works well for this band. Getting Tom Warrior to guest on “Baphomet” is a nice touch, but not surprising, since Santura is the live guitarist for Celtic Frost. The band came up with an inspired composition for Tom to work his magic on. “Catacrusis” starts promisingly, it carries through to the end with some cool atmosphere and has some nice hooks, but other than those two songs nothing really stands out as high water mark Dark Fortress quality. Nothing compares to “While They Sleep” or “Ghastly Indoctrination” and if I were to make a list of my ten favorite Dark Fortress songs none from Eidolon would make the list. That speaks more to the quality of the back catalog than to any supposed inferiority on this disc. Some will rejoice in the differences, the been there done that crowd that always wants bands to evolve, but personally if I want to listen to Darkthrone I want Darkthrone, if I wanted Opeth I would but on Opeth, not hope that Darkthrone developed an Opeth style. Dark Fortress is probably in the top ten in quality among German black metal and Eidolon is a very worthy release, I just was hoping for a sequel to Séance.

Beg, borrow or steal, but get your hands on this disc and you will love it. Definitely Dimmu fans should pick it up because it will really bring home the point of how lame Dimmu really is. This is an excellent album, but I was expecting outstanding.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments