Band: DoomSword
Title: The Eternal Battle
Label: Dragonheart
Distribution: Dragonheart
Release date: February 28th 2011
Review: CD

The Italian band DoomSword once started as 1014 AD, and since their birth (1996, as a duo: Guardian Angel and Deathmaster) they’ve been one of the most important bands from Italy within the Epic Metal scene. All former albums, as from 1999’s homonymous debut on, belong to the European top of the Heavy / Doom / Pagan-scene, strongly appreciated by both press and audience.
Italian label Dragonheart, which the band works with since the release of the second studio album, takes care of the newest (fifth) release too. The Eternal Battle, lasting for forty three minutes, is a ‘typical’ DoomSword-release, comparable to all former Dragonheart-material. Indeed, The Eternal Battle is an opus in the vein of Thyrfing, Solstice, Bathory, Cirith Ungol and Sacred Steel, yet with a totally self-developed interpretation. The concept deals with a darkened and introspective vision on War and Battle, seen from physical and psychological point of view. A duality with a complementary spirit, nice…
Musically this contradiction-and-comparability-in-one gets translated in emotional and melodic versus heavier and heroic parts. The atmosphere is a constant, but things like tempo, melodicism or intensity vary. All of it certainly is based on traditional, classic structures, going for both leads and rhythms, and a few times the band sounds more forceful and heavier than ever before. The purely medieval influences from the early years have gone almost completely now, and except for just a handful of moments (The Time Has Come), the acoustic approach of 1014 AD has gone completely.
The production and mix have been done with regard for equilibrium and power, which might be the most positive evolution since 2007’s My Name Will Live On.

75/100

Ivan Tibos.