Eternal Flight "Positive Rage" CD
[Cruz Del Sur]
You know a record's power metal as fuck when the cover painting is a hilarious rendering of a half-man/half-phoenix standing with fists raised in a swell of flames with lightning surging from his hands as a horde of ogres looks on from below.  Excellent, ha, ha!  Indeed this French outfit is straight up heavy metal with a lot of inspiration coming from the golden age of the 80's, down to the flashy lead work and the soaring vocals and harmonies that are somewhat akin to Bruce Dickinson, though of course not as strong.  Musically things are based around moderately paced picking patterns that range from standard heavy metal to slightly more progressive or creative uses of melody in the form of quick arpeggiated riffs or unusual chord phrasings that have a little bit of dissonance going on.  The chief setback I'd cite, as is common with a lot of these bands, is that the tempos are too slow.  Not slow slow, but they need to kick things up a notch in that department for two reasons: 1. it would add a lot more energy, and 2. it would make the songs go by quicker.  It's not as much of an issue that the record's over an hour long as it is that the individual tracks are all creeping up on six minutes or more.  If they played faster they could easily shave a minute off of almost every song without throwing out any material, and that would make a huge difference.  I think the band has a lot of cool writing tactics in place already, so I'd love to hear them throw in some speediness more often.  The solos are strong, the way they use the keyboards is very tasteful, and in general the riffs are pretty fuckin' cool.  Sometimes the vocals feel like they could be a little more forceful, and sure, some of the songs can drag and become tedious at times, but I'm very picky about power metal and I can definitely cite some potential with this band right away.  Opener "The Masks Will Fall" is a good choice to lead off, as it's the most balanced track and ends up being the most memorable cut through and through, but that's not to say that there aren't bright spots elsewhere.  "New World" is a little faster than much of the material and stands out as a result, and the same goes for the peppier "Beyond (The Golden Gates)", which is a pretty memorable track despite clocking in at more than six minutes.  Then you've got songs like "Secret Place" that have some spacious passages driven by synths and vocal work reminiscent of Queensryche on some level (this guy's range isn't anywhere near Geoff Tate's, though).  "Prelude (-Ath is Not the End)" is a brief segue with nothing but keyboards and dramatic spoken vocals, and I think that's something the band should stay away from, because it kills the flow and sort of sounds forced, thus making the nearly eight-minute "Back Into the Light (Renaissance)" seem a little clunkier than it already is.  Nine-minute closer "The Moon King" is pretty solid though, layering in some subtle acoustic guitars and flirting with choppy rhythmic interplay and lots of shifts in tone and tempo that fill the time well.  The recording's not bad, but were it a little stronger that'd be nice, of course.  The synths are very tastefully placed in the background so they never play a huge role, the bass is just audible enough, and everything sounds pretty good.  The drums are alright, the vocals are fine, and the guitar tone is nice and chunky without being muddy.  A little more brightness to the guitars could be nice, as would bringing the bass to a more prominent level in the mix, but despite minor issues such as this I think the overall production is suitable.  The rest of the layout is a little boring, okay... very boring, by comparison, but that's life.  It's all cheesy, but I can't deny the cover, it's got pizzazz!  Ha!  Lyrics?  Ehhh, you know, fighting for truth and justice, rebirth, new beginnings, the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes kind of stuff... nothing spectacular.  But fans of the genre should definitely look into this one, because there are several powerful tracks here, and in the future I'd like to hear what this band puts out there... with a little more energy they'd have a real winner on their hands.  Not bad. (6/10)
Running time - 64:13, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: The Masks Will Fall, Beyond (The Golden Gates), The Moon King]
Cruz Del Sur Music - http://www.cruzdelsurmusic.com

This review has been displayed 1669 times.