Ethereal Blue – Essays in Rhyme on Passion & Ethics

Second album for our own Ethereal Blue, and it’s neither Ethereal nor Blue for sure. Here we have to deal with a dark, black, progressive death labyrinth of passion, inspiration and high ethics. Ethics on how to write music for yourself, in respect of your listener, for the progress of the genre you serve itself.

From the first note, a strong My Dying Bride essence comes forth, from their heavy modern era of let’s say “Songs of Darkness, Words of Light”. Heavy guitars, desperate brutal vocals. But that’s just the beginning. The atmosphere and the daring of Moonspell, the psychotic progressiveness of Arcturus, the ever-present, to the genre, guidance of the Opeth formulas, all blend to a more than just interesting mixture, which utilizes all the above ingredients to produce a new, fresh and rewarding result. No patterns, no compromises, no borrows, no theft here. Heavy metal, open minded fans creating music as an artistic expression.

The rhythm session rebels upon its lead oppressors and composes. It doesn’t accompany, it doesn’t feel foreign. It’s there as an equal member, as equal part of this concrete structure. The guitars remain the main expressive instrument, reminding to all those miserable bands out there, that you don’t need tons of keyboards, female vocals, and howling wolves samples to create a dark atmosphere. Trippy mood in the vein of the mastership of Primordial. Melodies that travel you from your reality to imaginary landscapes and mainly from the start to the end of each of these wonderful songs. Last but not least the vocal work. Variety here is the explanatory word. From the clean growls of Aaron Stainthorpe, the muddy black vocals of the whole Norwegian black metal of the 90’s, the “Garm-ian” twists and the melodies and clean progressive metal vocals of Horizon’s End. It may sound weird but the clean vocal production and pronunciation reminds a lot the Greek progsters. In overall, each members contribution is vital and inseparable from the total. Their high technique skills are necessary for this final result but are never used for showing off.

Finally, all the above may be just details, as the main achievement of this album is its great compositions that convey all the aforementioned elements. Usually we tend to say : “give them a chance, support the local scene”..well not today. Today it’s : “give yourself a chance, support your taste”. No local scene, no mediocrity. Just Art.