| CD REVIEW Ecliptica |
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Band : Ecliptica Austria’s sixtet Ecliptica will have you sit at the end of your seat from the first tones of their album! Because, playing a modern Metal with slight progressive runs which provides for great lead guitar play, the band also toils around with three vocalists in different combinations! The formation of the band goes back to mid-2005 when experienced musicians of the Vienna scene [lead singer Thomas Tieber had Fornication, A.R.T. Dance Corporation, Steamer and Vivian on his curriculum; guitarist Markus Winckler came from Drunken Angel; bassist Florian Thür had played with Kathleen Turner Overdrive, Septicemia, and Lost Exit/ Mead; veteran drummer Roman Klomfar had not only done sessions with Stiletto (among others), but also played with Horny Pigs, Total Reflexxion, Sideburns, Beyond The Dark, Grain, Bonobo, Z-Moll, RG Kooper, and TOCC; leaving female singer Evelin (no further detail known) and guitarist/ backing singer Bernie Scholz (also no further details known) gathered in a new project, which apparently took its time developing, as the band did their debut gig somewhere mid December 2006, which was also when the guys (and doll) started preparations for the recording of their 6-track debut EP The Awakening (which they released in April (thanks to Rebeat Music Vertriebs it even got a decent distribution in specialist stores in Austria & Germany, and through digital outlets). Combined with a participation to the Austrian branch of the Metal Battle Wacken 2007 (which they won, the prize being a spot on the bill of that year’s Wacken Open Air), plus noted appearances at the 2007 Donauinselfest and Raise Your Fist fest events, plus a support to Symphony X, the quintet’s profile increased more and more, and in August they start writing new tracks which they plan to record early in the next year. But in November 2007 the band comes across a first negative event when female singer Evelin is forced to cease activities with the band due to personal reasons. That same month, no one less than former Firestorm singer Elisabeth Fangmeyer joins the Ecliptica ranks…a very excellent replacement indééd! Recordings for the band’s full-length debut start in January 2008, and on May 16 the album hit the specialist shops! Since then, some of the things that marked the career of the band are their participation to the Arena Open Air event in July (where they supported In Extremo), the departure of both Fangmeyer and Scholz (this time due to professional reasons, neither of the two able to spend enough time on Ecliptica, and prefering to give someone else the chance to dedicate him/herself to the band!) in September, the recruitment of guitarist Alen “Van Alen” Duricic (of Oon The Rock, Underweight, and Eleftheria repute) in October…and their signing to Frontiers only a couple of days later! To get more deeply into detail on the album’s musical meanderings, it’s safe to say that the music on the album can be classified as a sorts of melodic Power Metal with a great progressive Heavy Metal basis. The 10-track album is opened with the short semi-acoustic instrumental title track, which really serves as an intro to the ensuing “My Paradise”, which is already the perfect example of how the male/ female vocal thing works out! Both singers have a somewhat clean style, with the somewhat girlish/ feminin still as a counterbalance for the slightly more voluminous male one, and the male backing singer bringing in the occasional growl. The same vocal equilibrium is held for “Land Of Silence” and “Carry On”. Just when you think you’ve got the band pegged, the singers start changing the combination somewhat occasionally. For track N°5 (“Twilight Hall”) the female vocals are put somewhat to the back, and the male backing vocals are now somewhat more prominent, albeit in an equally “clean” version. The overall calmer “Turn Away” [which contains a piano intro and outro, just like the preceding song – but at least for thís song the keyboard play (there’s also an atmosheric passage) is credited to one Andreas Frast, known from having a guest musician post with Circle Of Pain] could be seen as the album’s ballad, even if things àre a slight more excited towards the ending! In “Old Man’s Memories”, the singers go for a triple lead vocal approach, while the ensuing “Watching You” is mainly a male-sounding thing (the feminin singing brought to a minimum in the background. If indeed you might say that until now the lead male singer has had the upper hand in the singing, things are reversed for “Jester In The Ballroom”. For album closer “Black Swan”, the vocal roles return to their normal duality, or almost...the second male singer again bringing in some great “clean” backings. With a length of almost 9 minutes and canging intensities, this song truly deserves the “Epic” description, especially when you look at the lyrical content, dealing with a clan’s helmsman trip of revenge (actually, other songs draw from fantasy as well)! And that Latin spoken intro (of which a piece is repeated within the song) helps too, of course! To return to my initial observation, these Austrians will have you stitting on the edge of your seat while you’re listening to their album! To have yourselves a listening session while remaining in your seats, you best surf to ecliptica.at, where you can listen to a full version of the instrumental and “Land Of Silence”…plus the complete EP…and samples of all other songs on the album (you could also go to myspace.com/eclipticaaustria, but you don’t get as much!). Since November the band is auditioning for extra singers, their aim to find two female and one male vocalist, enabling the band to make their “choral” vocal passages all by themselves! Should be interesting…so if you’re an Austrian (m/f) with vocal ambitions (and the voice to fit in the Ecliptica sound), live in the Vienna area (or are inclined to move to be closer to the band’s rehearsal space), and are prepared to put in the necessary time, maybe you should make contact with this truly fine band of musicians! 95/100 Tony. |