44. The Eternal - "Skinwalker"

As I go through these records it is becoming increasingly obvious to me that this is a rather eclectic and also off-kilter mix of records. There is not much that I would call communal garden metal. There is an awful lot of albums that are happily challenging and distorting stereotypes and templates, but very few that are happily serving up gut-wrenchingly stunningly opulent metal. So, praise be to the Eternal for stepping in to save the day.

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, The Eternal take their cue from European luminaries such as Katatonia, Paradise Lost, and Amorphis. This is a gorgeously expansive record, melancholy and miserable but also beautifully produced. In its down-heartened despondently it sounds glorious.

Mark Kelson’s vocals are fantastic, he marches ably between gothy fragility and colossal room-filling verbosity. They are offset by a musical soundscape that is sumptuous and continually stunning. A brilliant record that shows the utter wonderfulness of Route 101 metal.