Since the release of their 2004 Firebox Records debut, "The Sombre Light Of Isolation," Melbourne melodic doom metal act The Eternal have been busy with plenty of national and international touring as part of the Doomination Of Europe II tour with The Prophecy, as well as compiling 2005 independently released compilation DVD "Sombre Visions" and recording their-long awaited sophomore effort.
Released globally in October 2005 to overwhelming critical acclaim, The Eternal’s newest album "Sleep Of Reason" was only available as an import for an extraordinary six months in Australia before finally being picked up by distributor Modern Invasion Music, just in time for the band to support Finnish rock act HIM and Swedish progressive death metal act Opeth.
I caught up with vocalist/guitarist Mark Kelson to find out the reasons for a slight change of direction between albums, what it was like working with producer Endel Rivers and artist Travis Smith, the frustration associated with the lengthy delay between releases and the group’s reaction to the growing support to "Sleep Of Reason" over their debut, or even his former band Cryptal Darkness, for that matter.
“Reaction-wise, we were really happy with the way ‘Sleep Of Reason’ has been received, especially over ‘The Sombre Light Of Isolation.' We could always sell more though!" he laughs. "Our debut actually got more attention than we expected. I was satisfied with the exposure it gave us to the international music market. Sure, we didn’t splinter the earth, but it did allow us to say, ‘Hey! We’re here!,’ and thankfully a few people paid attention to that.
"2005 was a great way to start our career as a band, especially after struggling with Cryptal Darkness for so long. I can accept that Cryptal Darkness was part of the process leading up to The Eternal. On a professional level we weren’t quite there, and I guess I didn’t have the guts to take the bull by the horns at the time and turn the band into a fully fledged working machine. So yes, The Eternal is a major step up. We got a little bit of good stuff happening for that band, but it never really came through. I honestly thought that the band was the end of my music career. It was slowly wasting away. I needed a fresh start, something that was strong and something that I could do exactly the way I wanted to do it. That’s where it all began for The Eternal. The change was a whole lot better, and the response to the band’s debut was better than my previous ventures, and it’s only getting better as time goes on.”
But for every step up, there are small hiccups to contend with, and this time it was lengthy six-month delay between the international release of "Sleep Of Reason" and its eventual release in Australia.
“That was very frustrating. That had a lot to do with distributors not willing to take a chance on a small Finnish label. We got dicked around to a certain extent by a few companies that continually led us on with the idea that they would pick up Firebox Records, only to pull the plug at the last minute. We were left thinking, ‘Holy crap!’ We literally reached a point where we had run out of both eggs and baskets. So we basically took it upon ourselves to get the album released.
"We’re professional in our business ethic, and we only want to work with people who are straight up with us. We went to Modern Invasion Music and told them who we were and what we wanted. We asked them to release our album because we were committed to touring and planned on pushing our album hard, and we were sick of being dicked around in our own country. The contact was made with Firebox Records . . . The great thing is that we got confirmation of our distribution here at the same time we got the supports for HIM and Opeth, which brought out some distributors who were keen to have another shot at releasing the album, but it was too late by then.
"At the same time we were announced as support for Opeth, we were finally getting other support with endorsements too. That’s been a great help to us, because we all managed to upgrade all our gear. So while it was a frustrating time, it’s all worked out. Modern Invasion Music is really behind us and pushing us really hard, and it’s proving very beneficial.”
While "Sleep Of Reason" has been well-received, it’s interesting to see a small number of critics that have been unimpressed with The Eternal’s new musical direction, which moved away from a strictly doom sound to take in other influences. Some claim the band has sold out.
“The whole sell-out thing is pretty funny, because you’re only selling out if you’re doing something for purely for the money. Believe me, we’re not out there buying Mercedes-Benzes from the money we make on the band. We’re not doing it for the money. When you’re 19, and you’re playing in a grindcore band, you don’t necessarily want to be in a grindcore band when you’re 30. That’s not selling out, that’s more about gaining appreciation for other styles of music outside that one genre. In our case, it was about appreciating classic musicians and acknowledging that.
"I’m now in a band full of worthy musicians, and everyone is into different stuff. We spend a lot of our time on tour listening to all the things that we like, and those varied tastes have helped shape us into a more polished direction. I mean, [drummer] Marty O’Sheais is into progressive rock bands, while [guitarist] Lincoln Bowen, who is also a music teacher, is more into metal and blues. I don’t necessarily see a broadening sound as a sellout, because if you’re still following your heart and working on your vision of progressing upon your abilities, it’s only a good thing.
"There’s things about ‘The Sombre Light Of Isolation’ that we wanted to improve upon, such as the time we spent in the studio and production techniques, which is something I’m really interested in. And in making those changes, we knew it was going to give us a more polished sound. I think that ‘The Sombre Light Of Isolation’ was more about me saying to Cryptal Darkness, ‘This is the album we should have made if we had pulled our fingers out of our asses. This is the album I wanted to make.’ It still sounds like my type of riffing on this album, but some of those songs were written around the demise of Cryptal Darkness and some around the birth of The Eternal. So we made the album, and it was a good starting point for us, because I never considered The Eternal a straight-ahead doom metal type of band. The Eternal right from the outset have clean melodic vocals. I’m not sitting at home depressed wanting to slit my wrists. I’m having a ball in this band. We have a great time together, so I want The Eternal to express that emotion, rather than encouraging depression. Feelings and emotion are good. Depression is pretty sad!" he laughs.
"When I recorded those Cryptal Darkness albums, that’s how I was feeling at the time. I was playing doom because I wanted to. It tied in with my character. I was a depressed individual and pretty upset, and I expressed it by playing slow, emotive music. I still find to a degree The Eternal playing slow emotive music, but it’s now on a different level. When I made ‘The Sombre Light Of Isolation,’ I was really nervous about the clean melodic vocals. I was sure that the scene wasn’t going to accept this, because I’m not moaning or doing death vocals. In Australia, it’s either death or power metal. There aren’t any melodic metal bands with male vocalists as such. At the time I was very scared. I didn’t think I was that fantastic. But it’s a lot more revealing.
"When you’re doing death vocals, I think you’re hiding a little behind the growl. Growling is cool, and people dig it. But when you sing, that to me is more emotionally exposing. I felt fairly exposed heading in that direction. But I feel I’m getting better at it, and The Eternal is getting stronger with every album. We still arranged all of our own songs and did everything in a way that we wanted to do on ‘Sleep Of Reason,' so those people saying that we sold out are the same people that want to hear the same album over and over again.”
That progression seems to be moving at full swing for The Eternal. Kelson said work was well under way for the band’s third album. But it’s hardly a quick follow-up, especially given that it’s been almost 11 months since ‘Sleep Of Reason’ was first released.
“If you think about it, between the last Cryptal Darkness album [2001’s "Chapter II—The Fallen"] and The Eternal’s debut, there was three years' worth of writing there. And there was another couple of months' worth of writing in between the recording of ‘The Sombre Light Of Isolation’ and its eventual release. So when you’re not touring because the album hasn’t been released yet, you’re always writing.
"So by the time went on The Sombre Light Of Isolation European tour, I had a disc’s worth of demos that I took with me that I had already started working on. That contained about eight or nine songs. Within three months of coming back from the European tour, we were in the studio recording. So while it’s been [11] months since ‘Sleep Of Reason’ came out, recording had finished three months before that. So it all adds up to close to a year. You always have that time between the end of recording and the album’s release, and you’re not touring much. And that has a lot to do with being here in Australia. We don’t want to tour too much and overplay the scene, so when I’m not playing, I’m always writing.
"I have a pretty good studio set up at home, so I’m always dedicating every minute I have to writing and recording new material. So far the ideas haven’t stopped, so I’m slowly building a stockpile of material ready for the next The Eternal album and some of the different projects I have all over the place.”
Kelson says The Eternal's next album will move on from the sound heard on "Sleep Of Reason" and that it’s not likely to see the light of day until mid-2007.
“We set ourselves deadlines to a degree, so we plan to be in the studio by November starting preproduction on the next album. At [the time of the interview], we have 13 complete songs for the next album. I’m hoping to write 16 and then pick the best 10. "Since the release of ‘Sleep Of Reason,' we’ve grown together as a band, especially with the turmoil in the lineup. Touring helps us sort out who was in the band for real in that respect. Now we have a lot better idea of what we’re doing and heading. So we’re kind of ready to move on from ‘Sleep Of Reason’ to a degree. Our new direction isn’t the same as ‘Sleep Of Reason,' but it’s not shorter and catchier like some people would expect either.
"I just completed another 10-minute track. There’s also one song that was there from demos before ‘The Sombre Light Of Isolation.' Before now, it just didn’t seem fit. We rerecorded it from its original demo form and reworked it, and now it sounds like it was meant to be on the next album. But most of the new album will feature material that was recently written.
"We’re not repeating ourselves. We’re experimenting with a lot of different methods of making things sonically different. Not necessarily playing anything different, but experimenting with different sorts of instruments, keyboards and analogue stuff. We’re talking about all the different sorts of music that we like and the way to achieve those things sonically. So in a way, there’s a bit of that '70’s progressive rock mentality in us to want to make sounds and trip out a little. We don’t want to be a stoner rock band. That won’t happen, because we’re a melodic metal act with a metal heart.
"I won’t allow this band to become Radiohead and make everything sound weird for the sake of being weird. It will still be melodic metal, but it will be heading forward at all times, wherever that may be. Every album is part of the transition. You don’t want to get stuck. I’ve always said that I never wanted to make ‘The Sombre Light Of Isolation’ part two. I still enjoy playing those songs from the album, and it was a very positive time in our music career. I mean, it gave us the chance to tour Europe. I want to keep progressing. If people can’t deal with that, that’s cool. I don’t want to disregard fans, I just hope that they grow with us and enjoy the sounds that we’re making.”
One aspect of The Eternal’s past that is likely to return is producer Endel Rivers (also guitarist for Black Majesty/Vanishing Point), whose work on ‘Sleep Of Reason’ left a deep impression on Kelson.
“The making of ‘Sleep Of Reason’ was the most relaxing, creative and professional time in the studio for us. It was a dream. Everything went so smoothly. Rivers was just awesome to work with, down to earth, and we got along really well with him. He’s an unbelievable genius. I know everyone says that about the producer they use on any given album, but he’s actually an unbelievable musician and jaw-dropping as far as his own music and his concepts, without the ego. So much so that you can kind of feel intimidated playing in front of him.
The Eternal Feature Interview (p.1) << you are here
Since the release of their 2004 Firebox Records debut, "The Sombre Light Of Isolation," Melbourne melodic doom metal act The Eternal have been busy with plenty of national and international touring as part of the Doomination Of Europe II tour with The Prophecy, as well as compiling 2005 independently released compilation DVD "Sombre Visions" and recording their-long awaited sophomore effort.
