Who’s up for epic symphonic death metal? Here we go with EPHEMERALD and their debut “Between the Glimpses of Hope,” which is set to release on February 19th, 2021, via Inverse Records. Joni Snoro (ex-FROSTTIDE), Lauri Myllylä (VOIDFALLEN), Vesa Salovaara (VORNA), Juho Suomi (APOCRYFAL) formed the band in 2016, and later joined forces with Tuomo Sagulin (MECHANIK PROJECT), to create furious metal straight from their hearts, and (according to their Facebook description) are now ready to take the world by storm. The first songs I heard a few weeks ago made me really curious about this Finnish quintet, let’s see if they can keep their promise.
The lyrics on “Between the Glimpses of Hope” are about countless new beginnings and attempts to break free from the shackles of the past towards a better tomorrow. Hope lies in the unseen future, but things will never change for the good with mainly external circumstances – The profound changes have to be done by ourselves.
EPHEMERALD open their album without losing time for an intro: “Grand Creation” comes straight to the point and delivers everything for fans of the genre. The epic orchestration in style of MORS PRINCIPIUM EST caught me at once, and sounds fantastic with the powerful death metal elements. Alternating growled and clean, warm vocals give the music even more expression. Over the next three tracks, they confirm this first impression: the drums deliver blast beats in the best death metal manner, the riffs are heavy but melodic, and the vocals strong. The orchestration builds a solid basis on which the songs can develop, and comes up with interesting, varied elements.
“All There Is” brings in a calmer side, the acoustic guitars and clean vocals create a beautiful atmosphere. The song is about the importance of living in the moment, as people tend to cling onto the past or their fearful assumptions of the future, refusing to see and accept the world as it is.
In the second half, the album gets even stronger. While “Reborn” is faster again, but still very melodic with a light folk metal vibe, “No Fall is too Deep” brings all the before mentioned elements to the top, and is one of my highlights. The finale comes with “Into the Endless,” which closes this impressive release as powerful as it started.
“Between the Glimpses of Hope” is a great debut album, and highly recommended for fans of Finnish symphonic melodeath metal in style of MORS PRINCIPIUM EST. The nine tracks are an epic listening experience, and thanks to the lack of fillers, best enjoyed in its entirety. The music is straightforward, but varied, hard hitting, but still melodic, dark, but with light elements – and it’s the play with these contrasts, that makes the songs so interesting. EPHEMERALD are an exciting new discovery for me, and I can only say that they’re starting their journey with a banger.
Written by Katha
Tracklist
- Grand Creation
- I Bear Fire
- Servant
- Lost
- All There Is
- Reborn
- No Fall Is Too Deep
- Till the Sea Swallows Us Whole
- Into the Endless
Lineup
Joni Snoro – Guitar
Lauri Myllylä – Bass
Vesa Salovaara – Vocals
Juho Suomi – Drums
Tuomo Sagulin – Keyboards & Orchestrations
Label
Inverse Records
Links
Recent posts
[recent_post_carousel design=”design-1″]
