Echoes of Eternity – The Forgotten Goddess – Review

echoesofeternity200Echoes of Eternity

The Forgotten Goddess (Nuclear Blast)
by Martin Popoff

I wonder if Napalm Records is resentful of the American’s stealing yet another good idea and making big with it, namely Evanescence, although, of course, an Italian band and a Finnish band have also stolen the Napalm thunder. Oh well, here’s another American proposal, Echoes of Eternity being an L.A.-based project (long story) with a Canadian-born singer. The formula’s a little different though… What you get is a pure, unadorned, dreamy voice, almost like Candice Night, placed over relentless quick-picked progressive metal that’s so precise and so lacking in any of the outré arrangements courted by progressive that it’s damn near a math metal version of Children of Bodom. Not thrilled with the high-strung, ProTooled, synthetic, stiff nature of the riffs and drumming, nor the attendant clacky drum sound. Reading about the admitted project nature of the band kinda dampened all enthusiasm for me, despite the total shred-headed metal behind will o’ the wisp here.
(www.nuclearblastusa.com)