Review: Eternal Storm – A Giant Bound to Fall

Genres: Melodic death metal, progressive death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth. Persefone, Be’lakor, Insomnium, Shylmagoghnar, Dark Tranqulity
Country: Spain
Release date: 16 February, 2024

The overlong album has plagued music since the inception of the CD. Gone are the days of cramming everything into a tight thirty-five to forty minute LP, but that certainly doesn’t mean every album should even approach over an hour in length. That being said, there are rare times where a huge album just works. For the sake of comparison, let’s use First Fragment’s Glorie Eternelle and Thank You Scientist’s Terraformer. What do they have that most 60+ minute albums lack? Structure, the same thing that prevents Eternal Storm’s A Giant Bound to Fall from collapsing under its own weight.

Dwarfing both of our aforementioned examples’ openers, Giant opens on the tones of a dreamy, dreary synth and repeating clean guitar. Drummer Gabriel Valcazar (Wormed) gives us the first taste of his monstrous performance on this album, his blast beat heightening in volume before it explodes alongside triumphant, melodic riffing. Just when all goes still, the synths come back in, and Daniel R. Flys screams underneath a massive, driving riff, heralding us into the seventy-minute journey A Giant Bound to Fall.

Treat ‘An Abyss of Unreason’  as if it’s the album’s overture. A preamble of what’s to come. It’s equal parts ethereal and heavy,showcasing a repeating melodic motif throughout the first half, but adding just enough permutation to keep things jaw-dropping. When the band wants to make the heavy sections hit harder or give the listener some well-needed reprieve, they add heavenly clean sections and reverb-laden guitar before exploding back into death metal riffage. The best part is, this incredible understanding of structure is all over Giant. 

The opener is over before you know it, wasting no time before jumping into ‘A Dim Illusion’, already a SOTY contender. Less frenetic than the onslaught that came before, and nearly half the runtime,simple (for prog), groove-laden guitars make way to yet another synth section, highlighting the extraordinary drums and atmosphere. Eternal Storm understand the buildup and breakdown of their longer songs, drowning the listeners in gloom before fishing them out of the abyss and showing them the sun in giant-sized crescendos. The pounding riff in this song’s latter half builds into its finale is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

But what ties an album of this magnitude together, especially as it comes so close to crumbling? The answer lies in its use of dynamics. Take the ten minute display of power on ‘Last Refuge’ which comes hot on the heels of the much calmer ‘There was a wall’. Insomnium is most surely an influence on Eternal Storm, and they’ve clearly learned from how Winter’s Gate presents its scope of ideas in a neat and orderly fashion through dynamics. The almost calming chorus in ‘Last Refuge’ coming after the album’s heaviest section is a perfect example. Dynamics are what make this album pop just as much as Glorie Eternelle and Terraformer, all without an ounce of listening fatigue.

’Eclipse’ is where I first began to parse this album’s structure. Strung together by that same synth that started the album off, it acts as our bookend for the first half. A post-rock inspired guitar gently floats along the four-minute track, short enough to leave much-needed breathing room for the listeners.Eternal Storm give you a gentle caress, before slingshotting you into the second half when those drums come in, in almost Floydian fashion.

From the opening trem guitars of ‘Lone Tree Domain’ to the final, epic title drop of ‘A Giant Bound to Fall’, the album’s second half does not relent in quality. If I haven’t made it obvious enough, each song on this album is incredibly paced, and I’m still finding new moments to enjoy on re-listens. A fantastic, clear mix by Dan Swano gives every instrument (even the bass!) space to breathe and be heard, adding to the lack of album fatigue.

What Eternal Storm have proven is they are masters of playing with dynamics and song structure. They know when to slam you against a wall with riffs and when to let the synths and clean vocals play against each other. The addition of more clean vocals adds to the sadboi-but-prog style of melodeath they’ve pioneered here. As the final synth line rings out on the title track, I feel that the following months will yield more layers to uncover. Many, many more. 

Recommended tracks: An Abyss of Unreason, A Dim Illusion, Lone Tree Domain, The Void, Last Refuge, A Giant Bound to Fall
You may also like: Fires in the Distance, Disillusion, Grey Skies Fallen
Final verdict: 9/10

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Label: Transcending Obscurity – Bandcamp | Facebook

Eternal Storm is:
– Daniel R. Flys (lead vocals, bass, guitars, keyboard)
– Daniel Magnato (guitars, bass, additional vocals)
– Jaime Torres (guitars, additional vocals, keyboard)