Band: The Eternal
Title: Kartika
Label: Firebox Records
Distribution: LSP-Music
Release date: 14/01/2009
Review: CD

The Australian band The Eternal was formed in 2003 from the ashes of Cryptal Darkness. Soon the band got signed by Firebox Records, one of the leading Doom-labels this millennium, and after the release of The Sombre Light Of Isolation (2004) and Sleep Of Reason (2005), Kartika is the third result of this collaboration. Everything was recorded on several locations in Australia, but the mix was done in Tallinn, Estonia, at Palm Studio by Endel Rivers, who did collaborate with some of the members before (he did the mastering, for example, for InSomnius Dei, a band in which some The Eternal-members are involved with).
As a matter of fact, I’ve not quite been a fan of Cryptal Darkness, even though I think that part of the history is more interesting than the current one, because The Eternal is too ‘poppy’. Kartika does not change my opinion, on the contrary. As from the first song on, The Eternal bring melancholic, catchy and emotional Goth Rock / Doom Metal with a clean production and lots of clichés. I have to admit that terms as ‘details’ and ‘diversity’ come with conviction, but sometimes it bores the Hell out of me. Oke, they did a step forward towards a wider audience, and they didn’t make it all too easy either. But my overall impression is that this album is too shallow and flat.

60/100

Ivan Tibos.