The Eternal - Sleep Of Reason
74%
From the new collection of promo’s Metalrage had gotten there were two doom metal records. One being funeral doom, which I almost completely dislike, and one being atmospheric doom. Finally something that practically obligates me to give it a stoned review!
The reason for that being of course the impact of music being oh so much more heavier after a few bong hits, especially with something as heavy as doom metal. Although The Eternal didn’t appear to be as heavy as I had hoped it does have an immense collection of spacey keyboard tunes and effects. Normally if I only hear a keyboard I’m pretty sure that I’m not gonna like that specific album, but after hearing this trip called Sleep of Reason like three times I was once again proven wrong. Fantastic atmospheric noises keep pouring out of the speakers, making it the best asset of this band for me.
Another think that oddly came to my liking were Mark Kelson’s vocals. Clean, almost pop-orientated vocals with doom metal doesn’t sound like it’s gonna work, but believe me it kind of matches. Not every time though, there are some parts where he drives it a bit too far, and starts to look a bit like James LaBrie.
The music accompanying these vocals, is far from the heavy doom metal that is taking over a huge part in my record collection, but less and less heavier. They use the style of music more in a way of tempo, nice and slow that is. But the term metal could easily be replaced by something more gentile, fitting more to the album’s sound, which happens to be a lot like rock. Listening to this album relaxes one in a pleasant way too, calmness enveloped me when reviewing this, unlike a heavy ass fuck Electric Wizard record that completely absorbs me into the couch or bed I’m lying on.
Definitely an album that I can appreciate, also because of some small rhythmical escapades here and there, which make the best tracks for me. I don’t think I would have bought it myself, since there’s so much more doom I must buy. But if you’re looking for a slightly depressing but very relaxing spacey doom rock album I can advise nothing better than this one.
