Album Review: "Heaven's Gate" by Eternal of Sweden

Heaven's Gate

Growing up, Scandinavia was this place very far away.

Taking Social Studies as a young lad, I remember hearing about the midnight sun and the northern lights.

I still desire to see the Aurora Borealis.

As I've gotten older, our friends of the fjords have grown more and more interesting. Their exportation of hockey players comes to mind.

Think of the first Euro NHL player, he's from Finland or Sweden isn't he? Russians don't count. They're Russian players.

Sweden, Finland, Norway, and maybe that little bit of Russia, are very, very metal. From black metal to power metal to thrash metal to the Gothenburg scene, they have given us many more great metal bands than great hockey players.

Eternal (Of Sweden)

Today's subject is very metal, but not brutally so.

They're not flashy.

Long, overarching guitar solos where you picture the long flowing hair blowing in the on stage fan....well they're not here.

So, presumably, this is black metal singing the praises of the dark lord Satan and burning churches and hunting wolves....

Nope, but there is a nice undertone of keys, save for when the synths go full on to amp up the creep factor.

Power metal? Well, not precisely. There's some powery metal stuff going on here, but it's not really that. Some of these choruses are just huge. The size of Mother Russia, but it's still not power metal.

Were I to pigeon hole this music, I'd call it Progressive Gothenburg Power Metal, but missing the mushroom.

There are riffs a plenty, bet them guitars or keys. These five gents have no shortage of riffs. It's kind of like Tony Iommi..well if he were a mortal man and could only cram 35 riffs into a song instead of 345.

There's a progressive element to this album. The songs move in and out of areas. There's an exploration of sound that's often not found in metal.

Check them out. You won't be disappointed.

Release: 1/26/16
Genre: Heavy Metal
Label: Black Lodge Records
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