Style: Traditional (clean, female vocals)
Review by: Sam
Country: France
Release date: 05-12-2018
NOTE: This album was originally included in the December 2018 issue of The Progressive Subway
Female vocals are always a nice surprise when searching for new music as metal is genre heavily dominated by men. They can provide a good boost in personality for a band. That’s not to say though that your defining feature as a band should be the sex of your vocalist. Songwriting should still be the main focus. How does Eresis do?
This is a pretty nice record. It’s very guitar-focused. The riffage is firmly old-school. It’s clear they’ve been listening to Crimson Glory and (early) Fates Warning. As a huge fan of USPM this really pleased me. The acoustic parts also heavily reminded me of the magic from early Fates Warning, though it’s not as good. There are some cool solos as well, both from the guitars and the keys. The drummer also lays down some creative rhythms.
Second most focus goes to the vocals. Most often female singers tend to go for an overly operatic soprano approach, but Nico has a more jazzy voice. Note that there are still plenty of operatic stylings, but on the whole it’s a very nice change.
This record is long, too long. There are five songs of 7 minutes or more and the last 6 songs are part of a 26-minute suite. This wouldn’t have been a problem if their songwriting was up to par, but that’s not the case unfortunately. It could definitely use some trimming. Every song has interesting ideas, but the overall structure is lacking so the songs tend to feel aimless and the record starts to become repetitive after a while. There’s a certain tom rhythm that gets used in almost every song for example and the riffs start to blur together after a while. I’m also missing good vocal hooks and the keys are most often buried in the mix.
This band has potential to put out an 8 or so, but as of right now there’s too much they still need to work on to justify a score that high.
Recommended tracks: Test Subjects
Recommended for fans of: female vocals, early Fates Warning, Pagan’s Mind
Final verdict: 5.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Eresis is:
– Nico (vocals)
– Jonathan Jouenne (guitars)
– Silvere (drums)
– Fred (bass)
– Remi (keyboard)
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