Eternal Tragedy - Origin
Eternal Tragedy is a duo hailing from Greece and Italy and after almost 15 years since their debut, they are back, still spearheaded by guitarist Stefania Ponzilacqua. Over the years band has trimmed down a lot, leaving Stefania as one of the sole remaining members, but her guitarwork continues to shine through along with her songwriting in general as she builds on what made her debut and injects a bit more progressive elements to make “Origin” an album to remember. While not as prog death as the likes of Opeth or even Sylosis, think more of a back to basics like with Death when they were doing albums like “Human” and “Symbol.” Stefania’s guitar work is a bit almost more thrash oriented mixed with death metal, and alongside vocalist Giwgros Karakatsanis’ throaty rasp and snarls make the music almost sound like it is in the vein of Death meets older “Legion” era Deicide, especially when hearing a track like ‘Origin.’ The riffs and click of the drums along with the rest of the pace has its fast and slow moments, making the music a bit of a roller coaster ride.
Don’t expect much in the vein of ‘jazzy prog moments’ though in the vein of groups like Rivers Of Nihil which tends to be a household name when thinking of progressive death metal. Every track is a jarring whirlwind without much breathing room or mercy, save for maybe the interlude of ‘Cosmos’ whose melodic tones shows Stefania’s calmer side, but that is pretty much erased once jumping into ‘I Will’ with its jarring guitar notes and sudden uptick in aggressive pace; at this point the album seemed a bit mid paced, riding the line between prog and almost groove laden death metal, but it feels like on ‘I Will’ the band jumps back into Death territory, which is welcome to hear. ‘Bond Of Hatred’ has more of that mid to slow pace groove, but at the same time it showcases the guitar work much better than a whirlwind of a track like the one before it. It jumps a little all over the place, but the vocals do their best to keep the structure on the track.
‘No More Time’ is possible the most thrash driven track, so those who even enjoy Death from the 80s days will find it very enjoyable. While Stefania is a bit more chug driven on the guitar versus solos, Giwgros’ vocals are throatier, darker, and almost more Obituary styled versus the usual hybrid of the Death inspired shrieks or early Deicide Benton barks. The only downside that in his ferocity his vocals tend to be pushed into the front on a lot of the tracks and overshadows a lot of the guitar and drums moments. Thankfully, there are plenty of tracks to showcase Stefania’s talent to shred.
Overall, while a lot of the tracks don’t’ quite have too much variety between them, anyone nostalgic for the very early days of progressive death metal during the 90s when it was guitar focused and didn’t need clean vocals or keyboards or lengthy acoustic fillers to make it into a ten minute track will find Eternal Tragedy’s “Origin” enjoyable. Like its debut from 2008, the band trims even more fat down off the time and just delivers roughly 40 minutes of mid to fast paced, yet engaging progressive death metal.
3.5 / 5 STARS
Don’t expect much in the vein of ‘jazzy prog moments’ though in the vein of groups like Rivers Of Nihil which tends to be a household name when thinking of progressive death metal. Every track is a jarring whirlwind without much breathing room or mercy, save for maybe the interlude of ‘Cosmos’ whose melodic tones shows Stefania’s calmer side, but that is pretty much erased once jumping into ‘I Will’ with its jarring guitar notes and sudden uptick in aggressive pace; at this point the album seemed a bit mid paced, riding the line between prog and almost groove laden death metal, but it feels like on ‘I Will’ the band jumps back into Death territory, which is welcome to hear. ‘Bond Of Hatred’ has more of that mid to slow pace groove, but at the same time it showcases the guitar work much better than a whirlwind of a track like the one before it. It jumps a little all over the place, but the vocals do their best to keep the structure on the track.
‘No More Time’ is possible the most thrash driven track, so those who even enjoy Death from the 80s days will find it very enjoyable. While Stefania is a bit more chug driven on the guitar versus solos, Giwgros’ vocals are throatier, darker, and almost more Obituary styled versus the usual hybrid of the Death inspired shrieks or early Deicide Benton barks. The only downside that in his ferocity his vocals tend to be pushed into the front on a lot of the tracks and overshadows a lot of the guitar and drums moments. Thankfully, there are plenty of tracks to showcase Stefania’s talent to shred.
Overall, while a lot of the tracks don’t’ quite have too much variety between them, anyone nostalgic for the very early days of progressive death metal during the 90s when it was guitar focused and didn’t need clean vocals or keyboards or lengthy acoustic fillers to make it into a ten minute track will find Eternal Tragedy’s “Origin” enjoyable. Like its debut from 2008, the band trims even more fat down off the time and just delivers roughly 40 minutes of mid to fast paced, yet engaging progressive death metal.
3.5 / 5 STARS
Self-Released
Reviewer: Colin McNamara
Aug 16, 2023
Aug 16, 2023
Next review:
Asklepeion - I: Basilisk
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