The Lodge @ Epping Forest's Everblasting Struggle Review

Epping Forest
Everblasting Struggle

Overview: Carrying the listener to Greek and Egyptian settings through a fierce composite of Black and Death Metal, is what Portugal's Epping Forest have set to accomplish through Everblasting Struggle, their long-awaited debut after ten years of strenuous bustle.
The songs have been arranged in a similar fashion of quite a few vintage Black Metal records - having a reasonable obscure intro before the actual tracks and ending with a rather striking outro - and it conveys a surprisingly tight and clinical musicianship for a premiere recording. Drummer Menthor (of Corpus Christii's fame) provides a remarkable work behind the kit, putting across his calculated savagery in a no less impressive way than those of these genres' experts - something that genuinely affects the songs in a positive way - while the remaining rhythmic section aids convincingly at the same time. Keyboards aren't always in the context, since they only surface to heighten particular parts in different places and, occasionally, the vocals tend to vary in an approach equivalent to Behemoth's.

Production: Polished and sophisticated, but perhaps too prudent, in the sense that it doesn't let the sound strike as vehemently as it should, undermining the guitar assault in crucial segments.

Parting thoughts: Not even a handful of such inceptions have aroused my interest in the past - and particularly from Portuguese projects - but even if I don't consider Everblasting Struggle as entirely inventive or groundbreaking, I wouldn't be truly fair-minded if I didn't regard it as one of this year's top releases from Portugal.

www.eppingforest.net

© 2008 The Lodge

DISCLAIMER:
The Lodge doesn’t hold liability for third parties' viewpoints.
News, reviews and links are available as a consequence of the entities' support or promotional interest.
There are no set-up barriers concerning musical genres in this space: bigotry’s to be found elsewhere.