Eternal Evil - The Warriors Awakening Brings the Unholy Slaughter (2021)Release ID: 32450
Two years on from their Rise of Death demo, Sweden's Eternal Evil find themselves releasing their debut full-length via Redefining Darkness Records. The teenagers that make up the band play a brand of black/thrash that is far from new (not to these ears at least), with blazing intensity and no-nonsense tunes being the main menu on offer here. To a large extent, their youthful vigor carries TWABtUS in terms of making it a real bludgeoning experience but one that you sort of completely expected and so can excuse just as easily as you can enjoy.
If the album title alone wasn't proof enough for you of the direction of the band then a quick scan of the track listing will confirm the B-movie histrionics let loose here. Bestial Fornication, Minotaur of Evil, Satanic Forces and Witch's Spell all point you firmly in the direction of 80's horror flicks, coupled with their slasher flick font for their logo this all makes for a very (darkly) humorous outing. Let us not ignore also that laughable artwork of course. It is easy therefore to think of this as being a poorly put together list of songs by some young boys just cocking around in one of their garages. To some degree this is true. There is little in the way of variation on this album (notwithstanding the fact that it is a blackened thrash album so what the fuck do we expect) and if not paid close enough attention to you can easily dismiss TWABtUS as holding little in the way of interest.
Fact is though there is some good (not great) stuff on here. A few tracks start off really promising on the riff front, blending elements of speed metal into what will soon become the rhythmic charge of thrash metal riffs for the main part. Check out Terror of the Sphinx for evidence of this, starting off not only brilliantly but having a great section in the middle also with dueling guitars to boot. By far the strongest track on the album, this five minutes of fury does still have the predictability that plagues much of the album but it is an absolute blast. The run of speed built up on the tracks from Minotaur of Evil through The Nocturnal Omen (check out the sonics on the latter) and into Satanic Forces is where the rough edges show in all their nefarious glory and this is where the album has you by the balls.
The shorter tracks are were the album suffers a bit in all honesty yet the furious intensity that they generate on these is impossible to ignore and the shorter tracks feel more like the band stretching their legs and honing their abilities with pace and tempo; saving the (slightly) more technical stuff for the five minute plus tracks. The point I am making here is that if this what a handful of 17 -19 year old lads can do on their debut release than the potential here is obvious. Yes, they need to mix it up a bit and most certainly bring the drums forward in the mix for their sophomore if they get to one. Lyrically things sound as naïve as the track titles suggest they are going to be but that can only improve with age and to be honest if they continue to develop their song writing and playing skills then I could cope with the lyrical content very easily.
It is easy to knock these guys (I have seen reviews of this album already that do so) but for a first outing I thing this is a solid foundation stone for the band to build from. I admire the effort and the sheer audacity to release such an ugly yet promising record so early on in your career. Long may it continue.
