ELDRITCH – Blackenday

Eldritch was formed in the early 1990’s by Eugene Simone (guitar), Adriano Dal Canto (drums), and Terence Holler (vocals). Their debut album Seeds Of Rage was ready in 1995 and was voted album of the month in a German Metal magazine. Although the line-up has changed through the years, the Italians are still going, introducing their sound to the constant growing fan community, recently releasing their seventh album Blackenday.

It’s not easy to categorize the Italian quintet under one Metal subgenre. Eldritch combine Progressive Metal with Power Metal elements, and incorporate Thrash textures into their music.

Blackenday starts off very promising with a fast opening track, “Silent Flame,” gaining a more Thrash-like approach in “The Deep Sleep” where the vocals, as on “The Fire,” have a slight resemblance to Brainstorm’s lead singer Andy B. Franck. “The Blackened Day” has a more melodic approach than the first two songs, and is not particularly thrilling, but the guys manage to pull it off by wrapping up the song with a decent guitar solo. The compositions within the songs contain a great deal of tempo changes and swaps between the genres, yet there is still a common lack of diversity between the tracks, resulting in a rather monotonous outcome. The other thing that has a destructive effect on the CD is the vocals. Even though Terence Holler sings through the aggressive parts satisfactorily, the “clear” vocals suffer under the more melodic parts of the record, uncovering his limitations as a singer.

To mention some of the highlights, both “Black Rain” and the already mentioned “The Fire” are nicely completed, perhaps making them the strongest tracks on Blackenday. There is no doubt that the musicians are all well-skilled. And the mix, done by R.D. Liapakis (Mystic Prophecy) and Christian Schmid, makes all the instruments come out well.

The band has also invited some guests to make a mark on the new record. Ray Alder (Fates Warning, Redemption, and Engine) has added vocals on the ballad “Broken Road,” while Nicolas Van Dyk (also Redemption) contributes with a guitar solo for the same track. Gabriel Palermo (Storm Warrior) lays a fresh guitar solo on the second part of “The Deep Sleep.” Additional backing vocals have been taken care of by Laura Scappini (In Memory).

It has been reasonable to assume that Blackenday would be at least just as good, if not even better, than its 2006 predecessor. Neighbourhell attracted a lot of positive attention, and has set quite high standards for the band’s up-coming releases. Unfortunately, the new CD is a bit of a disappointment, as it doesn’t meet expectations.

CURRENT LINEUP

Terence Holler – lead & backing vocals
Eugene Simone – lead & rhythm guitars
Rob “PEK” Proietti – rhythm guitars and backing vocals
John Crystal – bass
Dave Simeone – drums & electronic pads