Eths

III (Season of Mist)
By Mike Delano

French metalcore crew Eths remind me of a lot of the “nu metal” acts that were shunned outright at the turn of the century because of their association with an increasingly unpopular style. Fact was, a bunch of those bands had some genuinely good stuff on display and weren’t just chasing trends, but they barely registered on the scene after it became fashionable for the press to simply crucify any downtuned band from that era. Eths has ties to metalcore, one of the most popular whipping posts of today’s metal critics, but they’re similarly uninterested in blindly chasing what’s popular or shoehorning a sugary sweet clean chorus into a song where it doesn’t belong. Their sound on III – formed by singer Candice Clot, guitarists Grégory Rouvière and Stéphane Bihl, bassist Damien Rivoal and drummer Guillaume Dupré – is simply solid, heavy music with an urge to experiment. “Voragine” is a harsh opener with shades of Otep, while “Harmaguedon” highlights Clot’s warm vocals and indulges the band’s Lacuna Coil side. The majority of the rest of the album settles into the dark, melodic groove established by the latter song (I can’t imagine the whispered French on “Inanis Venter” is meant to be anything but seductive), but don’t get too comfortable, since there’s always the chance of a primal scream around every corner. Such unpredictability can at times make III sound uneven, but it’s never less than engaging.
(www.season-of-mist.com)