CD Review: Eternal Fall, The - Emptiness Vol. 1&2

Written by Peer Lebrecht Tuesday, 17 January 2012 16:13

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Artist: The Eternal Fall
Title: Emptiness Vol. 1&2
Genre: Dark Wave / Gothic Rock
Release Date: 27th January 2012
Label: afmusic

Album Review

I have to confess that, up to now, THE ETERNAL FALL was one of those bands whose name instantly associated a kind of familiarity without to be able to entitle a single song concretely. This may be due to the fact that the band, despite their 11 years of existence and 9 released albums, never gained that border-crossing popularity. Being one of the most established Goth bands in their homeland Spain, they always held the status of an insider’s tip in the rest of Europe. But the current double album ‘Emptiness Vol. 1&2’ (an afmusic reissue of the same named albums released in 2010 and 2011) could change that because packed full of 30 songs it overviews more than thoroughly the oeuvre of the Iberian formation, whose music is residing somewhere between the gravity of Old-School Goth and the melodies of the Dark Wave, or to say it more precisely: between the density of the early SISTERS and the chilly lament of the first CURE albums. (But this is, as always, just a road map!)

For the fact, that the bunch of songs cursory reveal an area hard to gather with just a few words, it’s hard to voice a holistic view, cause too many styles, influences and approaches pass the mike to each other for outlining a specific pattern, aside from that pleasant melancholia, that dominates all of their songs, those complex haziness, that passes through the tracks like a veil, lifting just for moments. This makes, indeed, the album inapplicable for sunny days, but it plays up to the clouded mind! For paying tribute to the time I’m just focusing on some songs here, which reflect the entirety of the album worthily (in my mind of course!). Starting with ‘Beneath The Stars’ we fall directly in that viscid sadness, that will stay with us for the coming minutes. Elegiac piano tunes unfurl the monochrome stage setting, in whose centre the desperately wailing vocals giving a clue, that we’re dealing with perceptions beyond the light, with intensity and tactility.

‘Always It’s The Same’ is a great, straight rocking song, with those “famous” machine-like drums, fleeting guitars and floating keyboards. Without frills and made to the point - Goth Rock in its purest manifestation! So like ‘Broken Dreams’ with its catchy guitar line and that energy soaked with desperation, resulting from the vigorous vocals and the propulsive drum kit. ‘Ich denk an Dich’ leaves that path with its classical arrangement, dominated by a weeping piano and haze-like strings, which almost seem to dance on a high wire. It’s only a bit strange to listen to the strong accented German words, which seem to unveil a kind of vulnerability, not only emotional but also intellectual, cause phrases like “mein Schatz” are drifting dangerously close to the vocabulary of ordinary popular music. But I feel comforted again by songs like ‘The Pain’ with its angry fragility or ‘Own Cruel Song’, what bewitches with great spherical guitars and this violability in every sung word.

The second album comes up with songs like ‘I Am With You’, with its Cure-like velvetiness, ‘How Many Time’, what creates an almost sacred atmosphere by chant-like vocals and ritualising guitar splatter, the bitter-sweet ‘Frustration’ (sounding like arisen from an album named ‘Pornography’ by above named band) or ‘Leaving Myself’, what brings us back to the genuine Goth Rock feeling of a time, that seemed long gone. (Sometimes at least!) ‘We Can’t Turn Back The Time’ surprises by its complete lack of instruments and a really great vocal performance, meanwhile ‘All I need’ breathes the whole albums sweetest harmonies, something to lose in...

So let’s stop that little dissection here, cause think it’s enough to prove that ‘Emptiness Vol.1 & 2’ contains more than a handful of really great songs, which entail a convincing emotional intensity and the skill to create beautiful landscapes with only two colours almost. And that’s the only blemish I have to hold against it - as strange as it sounds, but it’s too much! Within that mass of songs the single one is losing a bit of its individuality, despite the fact that it’s hard to remember song number 5 while listening to the 27th one! Maybe that’s slightly indebted by the main one mighty atmosphere of despair, sadness and nihilism, what modifies to less throughout the whole way for revealing new facets at the end. That means it is an album You’ll need time for, patience to dive into that melancholic ocean, but once you feel its narcotic waters You’ll like to drown in it...


Tracklist

Current Line-up

Sol - Vocals, guitars, Bass, Keyboards, drums
De-Ath - Live Guitars


Website

http://www.theeternalfall.com


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10