Post and prog metal are interesting in one by one comparisons. Somewhere, there is a distinguishing line that delineates one from the other, although sometimes it’s hard to tell. Spanish prog melodeath outfit Eternal Storm walk right up to that line, and as evident as it is that they’re clearly on the prog side, the post-metal glints shine pretty bright.
The track we’re premiering works in balancing opposite ends well. “The Sleepers” reflects an impressive balancing act that weaves tender and beautiful airy atmosphere comparable to Dreamless era Fallujah, with brutal vocal and percussive breakthroughs that feel like lightning cutting through clouds.
As the track continues, the back and forth nature of each end of the spectrum fold in on each other that puts off a magnetic post metal glow. Throughout the six minute runtime the trio flow together seamlessly giving the listener multiple points of fixation with juicy composition. The details they focus on pay off well when it all come together. The clean vocals draw direct influence to Alcest’s Spiritual Instinct with emotional evocation that’s effective and impressive. Altogether the track wonderfully demonstrates that Eternal Storm can carry and balance an impressive amount of influence with impressive results.
Bassist/guitarist Daniel Maganto had the following to say about the track:
‘I find ‘The Sleepers’ as one of the most experimental tracks off ‘A Giant Bound to Fall’. It is also directly linked to the following track, ‘The Void’, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves since we still have to show you that one! Jaime shared with us the first sketches of it in 2018 (damn it, has it really been that long?) and our former drummer Mateo had a lot of input coming up with the tasty grooves and odd accents instead of the good old blast beats and fast drumming. Our session drummer Gabriel gave his very own flavour when tracking, making this song follow a pretty different approach to what we usually do.
This was the first time we ever used a fretless bass (thanks to Danny’s dad, Carlos, for letting us use his!), having been fans of Death, Cynic and of course jazz, prog and fusion music for a long time, we always tried to find the right way to implement it in our music and this song’s intro just happened to be right spot for it!
On top of that, we were honoured to have the legendary Dan Swanö singing on a few parts of it and, since he also mixed and mastered the album, it was very special for us to have his incredible voice here on top of his sonic expertise all over the record. Undoubtedly one of the biggest inspirations for us as a band!‘
If you like what you heard (which you should have), go ahead and preorder their new album A Giant Bound to Fall that’s out on Transcending Obscurity on February 16 at Bandcamp, and give their Facebook a follow as well.
