ETERNITY

1996's christmas present for me was this highly anticipated album (after I read a lot of review stating how much this album would blow up the previous releases of the band), and sure I was not deceived. This album is simply outstanding. The vocalist took singing lessons for the album and that's the main improvement: no more growls! The music, slow, dark and beautiful, lurks more and more toward Pink Floyd.

The album starts really smoothly with the beautiful instrumental "Sentient" (where you can see the influence of keyboardist Les Smith) and the ballad "Angelica" before things start to warm up. "The Beloved" is a very powerful song, fast paced with heavy guitar riffs. Then comes the masterpiece trilogy "Eternity", where you can recognize the songwriting of Duncan Patterson: "Part I" is a tortured song, a mix of pain and sorrow with awesone music and lyrics; "Part II" is an instrumental that is so beautiful words can't describe it; "Part III" starts again very quietly before the band unleashes an unexpected guitar storm at the end of the song. Other songs on the album incude "Hope", a Pink Floyd cover (though I cannot remember that song on any Pink Floyd album), "Suicide Veil", another outstanding slow and dark song (here you can hear clearly the Pink Floyd influences), "Radiance" (slow and dark again) and "Far Away" (another classic written by D. Patterson). "Cries On The Wind" is the only weak song on the album (without that song, this album would be in my top 3 of all time). Finally, the original release ends with an instrumental, "Ascension", in the vein of "Pentecost III" or "Black Orchid" on previous albums. The digipack version contains two more tracks: acoustic versions of "Far Away" and "Eternity Part III" (nice additions).

Rating: 91/100