Eternal Storm caught me by surprise and consequently murdered our faces with their absolutely fantastic debut record Come the Tide. A melodeath opus that puts them squarely in the elite camp populated by the likes of Insomnium, Dark Tranquility, and Be’lakor, Come the Tide will populate many a year-end list, and is an stellar shot across the bow for these melodeath upstarts. We were excited to read about the influences that inspired this record, and boy oh boy did they not disappoint.
There’s an absolute girth of incredible releases that have influenced Eternal Storm’s music. If you’ve heard their debut (and honestly, if you haven’t, change that immediately), some of these selections will come as no surprise. But there are more than a few picks here that provide both unexpected and keen insights into the bands musical development. We hope you enjoy reading about the band’s interests and influences as much as we have. With that, a note of introduction from Daniel Maganto:
The four of us are avid listeners of all sorts of music, so I have to admit that this task has been a bit difficult. We decided to talk a bit about five albums which were essential to our musical development when it comes to our approach to this band plus another five mentions in order to make these choices a bit less painful.
DANIEL MAGANTO (Guitars)
Edge of Sanity – Crimson (1996)
My personal favourite would be the polarizing Infernal, but this 40-minute masterpiece really captures the essence of the band and how diverse their influences were. The crushing riffs giving way to oneiric clean parts and incredible vocals, both growled and clean, showed me how much you can stretch the dynamics and transitions in order to make your music as interesting and diverse as possible.
Eucharist – Mirrorworlds (1997)
People usually praise A Velvet Creation and yes, that’s also an amazing album, but I always thought the sophomore album was quite superior. The combination of all those timeless melodies, way darker and more melancholic than your average melodic death metal band, with the exceptional drumming of a young Daniel Erlandsson really made them sound unique. The lyrics were also pretty poetic and, just like Sacramentum’s Far Away From The Sun, it’s one of those albums which take you to a frozen, distant landscape.
Katatonia – Last Fair Deal Gone Down (2001)
With Daniel Liljekvist joining the band, Katatonia really stepped up on this one. As much as I love their previous albums, having such a great and tasteful drummer took their music to a whole new level. By adding lots of amazing keyboards and programming, experimenting with open tunings etc they managed to make this record way more mature and give more importance to the atmospheric elements of their sound. They finally sounded like a real band instead of a studio project and they got rid of the raw vibes their first four albums had, which as I said before, I also love, but this was definitely something else. They still kept the haunting guitar melodies, the melancholic vocals (which sounded more confident on each new release) and the great use of effects and clean guitars, so that’s what I call an amazing evolution in my book. If you don’t get goosebumps when that first drum fill on “Dispossession” comes in, please go to the doctor immediately.
Vidres A La Sang – Endins (2006)
I’m pretty sure this one is pretty much unknown outside our country, but these guys are one of the best black/death metal bands I’ve ever heard. They sing in Catalan and some of their lyrics are poems of the late Miquel Martí i Pol and it’s heartbreaking how sincere and touching they are. Their songwriting is really exceptional and a huge influence on all of us when it comes to how important smooth transitions and good, solid riffs are instead of trying to show off your technique. Great drumming, quite technical but always with amazing taste, and the same about the incredible lead guitar work. Make sure you listen to the closing “Tots els paisatges són iguals”, it can’t get much more epic than this! They reunited last year releasing an incredible comeback album and we played a gig with them in the Basque Country this year, which was totally one of the highlights of our career!
Ulver – Bergtatt – Et Eeventyr i 5 Capitler (1995)
These Norwegians have performed a zillion different genres throughout their discography and I think Perdition City and Shadows of the Sun are two of the most captivating albums I’ve ever listened, but their black metal trilogy really has something special. Apart from the huge influence they had on other bands that would become real gamechangers, like Alcest, their musicianship was vastly superior to the rest of the bands from the genre around that time, besides Emperor and Arcturus, of course. Garm’s screams were so good and it’s amazing how one band can mix classical guitars with a flute solo and some furious blast beats and riffs and make it work perfectly. The start of an amazing discography.
Honorable mentions:
Death – Symbolic (1995)
Opeth – Damnation (2003)
Nahemah – The Second Philosophy (2007)
Amorphis – Tuonela (1999)
Isis – Panopticon (2004)
JAIME TORRES (Guitars)
Alcest – Écailles de Lune (2010)
I recognize I have a really soft spot for these guys since they released Souvenirs d’un autre monde. But on their sophomore they brought back the black metal elements from their early days and mixed it masterfully with shoegaze and post rock influences. This definitely opened up my mind to new sonic landscapes. Tender, but loaded with intensity.
In Vain – Ænigma (2013)
A modern classic, and one that had definitely a huge influence in the development of our sound. Epic as fuck, melding perfectly aggressive melodic black metal parts, morbid angel-esque death metal riffs and quieter, catchy anthems. The vocal range here is one of its strong points, deep growls, raspy screams and beautiful cleans, all of them performed with great passion. Plus the use of the saxophone in the closer “Floating on the murmuring tide” is the definition of tasty.
Opeth – Morningrise (1996)
Hard to choose an Opeth album since pretty much all of them are masterpieces for me. Morningrise, although not my favourite from them perhaps had the biggest impact on my approach to songwriting. Here, as in Orchid, Opeth had somewhat of a slight black metal and folksy atmosphere which is not so present in the albums that followed. In hindsight I feel the song structures are a bit disjointed but the beautiful counterpoint riffs, the acoustic guitar parts and the jazzy influences in “To bid you farewell” still remain top-notch.
Dissection – Storm of the Light’s Bane (1995)
Well, what can I say? This is just a fucking classic. From the iconic cover artwork, the chilling acoustic interludes, the incredibly well crafted melodies, the perfect mix of melodic death metal and black metal, the beautiful piano outro, everything oozes class on this record. Solemn, snowy, this takes you up to a desolate landscape and leave you there, on your own, freezing but happy to hear such kick ass riffs.
Death – The Sound of Perseverance (1998)
Again, tough choice between this and Symbolic, but this was my first contact with Death, so let’s go with this one. Lots of things that mesmerized me here. The melodic but thrashy riffs, the proggy and technical nuances, the excellent lead guitar work, the passion in the solos (that soloing bit in “A Moment of Clarity” still gets me). And one of the most beautiful instrumentals ever written in “Voice of the Soul”.
Honorable mentions:
Insomnium – Above the Weeping World (2006)
Gojira – From Mars to Sirius (2005)
Katatonia – Discouraged Ones (1998)
The Fall of Every Season – Amends (2013)
Drautran – Throne of the Depths (2007)
KHERYON (Bass, vocals)
Hypocrisy – Virus (2005)
Listening to this one for the first time when I was 15 y.o. was a truly gamechanging experience for me. I understood that I was totally into extreme metal and that I wanted to do what these people were doing. Not my favorite Hypocrisy album but definitely the most important one in my life. Full of extreme riffs, powerful sound, and the best thing Hypocrisy has: Tagtgren vocals.
Carcass – Heartwork (1993)
The perfect mix between melody and aggression. Catchy riffs, one of the best and most unique voices in death metal and lots of badass moments to bang your head to that make this album one of my most important influences. An eternal classic.
Vader – Impressions in Blood (2006)
In an era of overproduced vocals in death and black metal, the vocals of Piotr will always be an oasis of natural violence that sounds like a really angry human being instead of a demon from a Hollywood movie. The last LP with the trio of Mauser, Novy and Daray was an amazing inspiration and the energy that Piotr projects on stage is a huge model for me.
Immortal – At the Heart of Winter (1999)
Abbath taught us that you can go full metal on stage and still smile and make jokes just because you really are in love with what you’re doing. And the whole band taught us that you can make an amazing album with riffs that are equally catchy as extreme, big ambient parts, very long songs and still enjoy every single second of them. The best Immortal record, by far.
Kamelot – The Black Halo (2005)
Surprise, motherfuckers. Not everything is about extreme metal. This one is epic. It’s dark. It’s catchy. It has everything. For fucks sake, it has Roy Khan, the only person than can sing like the angels while making black metal faces. Every single song in this album is great. And as a band, you can only wish to create an album where 100% of the songs are worth the listening.
Honorable mentions:
Swallow the Sun – New Moon (2009)
Immolation – Close to a World Below (2000)
Impaled Nazarene – Pro Patria Finlandia (1994)
Kreator – Violent Revolution (2001)
Ghost Brigade – Isolation Songs (2009)
MATEO NOVATI (Drums)
The Black Dahlia Murder – Everblack (2013)
When I auditioned for Eternal Storm this was the most extreme album I could play on drums. I remember that analyzing this album helped me to understand extreme drumming better and made it easier for me to learn the songs from our EP From the Ashes.
Opeth – Ghost Reveries (2005)
Once I have joined the band, the guys sent me like 6000 albums I had to listen to in order to understand their sound. This one got really caught my attention and it was a great source of inspiration for learning to combine metal drumming with more subtle atmospheric passages and the importance of letting some parts breathe, so to speak. This was very important when working on my parts for Come the Tide and the compositions of Mikael Akerfeldt and both Martins (López and Axenrot) really helped me to grow as a musician.
Enslaved – In Times (2015)
It’s certainly impressive how they manage to combine the most vicious and visceral side of music and then, suddenly, they create celestial melodies with heavenly clean vocals. They are really good at playing with both sides of the spectrum.
Ne Obliviscaris – Portal of I (2012)
In the months before recording Come the Tide I was really in awe with this album. A great inspiration for my drumming on the most extreme side of the album.
Carach Angren – Death Came Through A Phantom Ship (2009)
I think this was pretty much the album who made me fall in love with blast beats and inspired me to work on my double pedal. It’s amazing that they are telling a ghost tale and performing the sonic representation of it. Seregor, Namtar, Ardek…I love you.
Honorable mentions:
Cattle Decapitation – The Anthropocene Extinction (2015)
Neck Deep – The Peace and The Panic (2017)
Bring Me The Horizon – That’s The Spirit (2015)
Thy Art Is Murder – Hate (2012)
Foo Fighters – Concrete and Gold (2017)