THE SCATTERING OF ASHES

This is Into Eternity's release after the incredible Buried in Oblivion. Scattering of Ashes seems lacking in my opinion but still manages to have some small amounts of good moments. In this fourth addition we can listen yet again to a new vocalist: Stu Block and another new member bassist Troy Bleich which have replaced the leaving members. The album's quality I would have to say it's their best so far but the music it's somewhat frustrating and boring rather than enjoyable.

First of all Stu Block's high pitched vocals are extremely annoying and exaggerated for that matter in a very similar way to those of James Labrie (Dream Theater) but to a lesser extent. I understand that many of these bands of a similar genre have a high pitched singer, which I truly enjoy but here we find yet another exaggerated singer that really annoys (seriously he does). The only good thing brought by Stu Block would have to be the variety styles and range of his vocals, which creates a variety in the music. As for the music, it sounds robotically and a bit repetitive especially the drums and the guitar solos. Don't get me wrong this isn't a terrible album but compared to their previous album Buried in Oblivion, Scattering of Ashes falls incredibly short. It seems as if they lost all of their musical inspiration.

That being said, there are still some good moments in this album but are very few and extremely scarce and they aren't enough to make keep listening the album for a long time. The first good song would have to be A Past Beyond Memory with a not very "wow" solo (most of which sound very similar) but has great heavy riff and a good melody in the chorus. Not very good but it manages to keep the album from not sucking in its entirety. Their next song Surrounded by Night which has a very good intro melody, but the atmosphere gets a bit ruined when the song goes to their second fast paced part. The solo is decent and manages to keep the songs intensive dark atmosphere and melody. Another good song would have to be Paralyzed which is the only song with a similar sound yet a different rhythm in one. In this song Stu Block manages to make good use of annoying voice by making it sound appealing for the song. All the other songs I find repetitive, identical and overall lack of musicianship.

In overall the Scattering of Ashes it's not a completely bad album. It still has some pretty decent moments. Also I find this album lacking and extremely repetitive with its rhythms and melodies. Into Eternity has gone back to their bad habits in repeating melodies and rhythm and with the addition of an annoying vocalist this band has gone from one of my favorites to becoming another band being left behind.

A 2.7 for me. Really frustrating.