AN NCS PREMIERE: ETERNAL STORM — “LONE TREE DOMAIN”

It’s already quite evident that as good a year as 2023 has been for metal, 2024 is going to start off with a big BANG! as a new universe of annual music begins another rapid expansion. Part of the early-year explosion is a new album by the Spanish progressive/melodic death metal band Eternal Storm that’s set for release by Transcending Obscurity Records on February 10th.

The album’s name is A Giant Bound to Fall, and it follows Eternal Storm‘s very impressive first full-length, 2019’s Come the Tide, which our own Andy Synn reviewed here, calling it “a brilliant album, from start to finish, and one which might just restore your faith in the Melodic side of Death Metal”.

To help pave the way for the new record, Transcending Obscurity has released two singles so far, and today we’re bringing you a third one — “Lone Tree Domain“.

We’ve already commented about one of those two previous singles, “The Last Refuge“. To repeat:
It’s often adrenaline-fueled, but sounds tormented, and there’s singing (both crestfallen and soaring) as well as shining keyboard splendor and beautifully melancholy guitar soloing in the mix.

It also makes room to jolt the hell out of your neck in its penultimate phase, a phase in which mandolin-like guitars take the lead in enthralling fashion. As it ends, synths expand the scope in cinematic yet haunting fashion.

The new song we’re presenting today is a further display of the band’s capacity to channel powerful emotions, to create elaborate musical excursions, and to get a listener’s blood surging — and it includes guest vocals by Eloi Boucherie from Vidres a la Sang and White Stones.

At 9 1/2 minutes in length, “Lone Tree Domain” provides room for Eternal Storm to spread their big wings (some of them raptor-like).

They hammer the pulse and sear the mind, send melodic riffs and arpeggios darting, swirling, and soaring. The vocals scream as if tortured, all hinges off the doors, and sing with passion. But the music also becomes slow and solemn, the guitars ringing and glistening in their mourning, the synths providing a gossamer shimmer, the vocals singing a somber lament, until all the voices, harsh and clean, join together, leading the music forward into daunting and haunting grandeur.

As they continue following their winding path, Eternal Storm open the floodgates of intensity, threading them with vibrantly rippling guitars and keys, but also provide moments of wistfulness, melancholy, and vast musical panoramas.

We also want to share these comments about the song from members of the band. We have this from guitarist, additional vocalist and main songwriter Jaime Torres:

“Lone Tree Domain” is one of the three long epics on the record, and one where we wanted to mix things up a bit, throwing in an atmospheric doom-ish interlude while also exploring a more classic, catchy mid-tempo melodeath sound.

As it often happens with our compositions, the first thing we came up with was actually the ending, and from there we worked our way back Benjamin Button – style trying to form a coherent whole. This one proved to be one of the hardest tracks to write, as we kept coming up with several ideas which were in itself quite cool, but ended up meandering in different directions and we were concerned the track would end up a directionless mess. Luckily we came up with a melody which would act as a recurring theme throughout the track, allowing us to navigate through the different tempos and moods while retaining a sense of narrative.

For this track we also had the pleasure to have Eloi Boucherie from Vidres a la Sang contribute some vocals during the mid section. Ever since we were teenagers we have been fascinated with this band, and especially their second album Endins was (and still is) a massive influence on us when we started writing music, so having Eloi finally guesting on one of our tracks is a massive honor!”

And we have this from bassist Daniel Maganto:

I think this is one of the most shifting songs off the new album, as the beginning is pretty upbeat and energetic, but then we take the listeners to a dense and doom-metallish journey, only to finish it with a more traditional and melancholic conclusion.

We repeat a motif throughout the course of the track at various tempos and with different instruments in order to give some coherence and continuity to the whole composition: you can hear that melody played with tremolo picking, bass tapping, string skipping and other techniques with small variations. In addition to that, we experimented on the long mid section by using a lot (and I mean A LOT) of vocal overdubs, analogue bass synth pedals, baritone guitars, organs and many other layers, aiming to create a shamanic feeling with every new element we added. It has a very basic foundation, but it is still funny to see how far you can expand an idea!

Our old friend Eloi Boucherie (Vidres a la Sang and White Stones) recorded some guest vocals during a good bunch of the aforementioned bridge. ValS are definitely one of the bands that have had a bigger impact on our music since our very early days, so it really means a lot to all of us to have him on one of our tracks! A true full-circle moment. Merci, amic!”

ETERNAL STORM is:
Daniel R. Flys | Vocals (lead), guitars, keyboards, bass
Jaime Torres | Guitars, vocals, keyboards, bass, fretless bass
Daniel Maganto | Bass, guitars (additional), vocals (additional)

In addition to the formidable talents of those three, the new album includes an extensive array of impressive guests, and we’ll list them here:

Session drums and percussion on this recording by Gabriel Valcázar (Wormed, Ernia)
Additional keyboards and synths by Jaboto Fernández (Nexus 6, TodoMal)
Noise and additional synths on track 1 by Roberto Bustabad (Varunian, Ovakner, Rvinas)
Additional vocals on track 2 by Sven de Caluwé (Aborted)
Additional vocals on track 4 by Kheryon
Violin on track 4 by Paul R. Flys
Additional vocals on track 6 by Eloi Boucherie (Vidres a la Sang, White Stones)
Additional vocals on track 7 by Dan Swanö
Additional vocals on track 9 by Sergi “Bobby” Verdeguer (Persefone)

The album’s haunting artwork was created by Leoncio Harmr, and it features on the array of formats on which Transcending Obscurity is offering the album, as well as other merch. You can explore all the options via the links below.

T.O. recommends the album for fans of: Be’lakor, Dyssebeia, Insomnium, Dark Tranquillity, In Mourning, and At the Gates.

Finally, we’re also including a stream of the other previously released song from the album, “A Dim Illusion“, which includes a guest appearance by Aborted‘s Sven de Caluwé.

PRE-ORDER:
https://eternalstormdm.bandcamp.com/album/a-giant-bound-to-fall
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/

ETERNAL STORM:
http://facebook.com/eternalstormofficial