ETERNAL REIGN – The Dawn Of Reckoning

Formally known as Perfect Crime, the German Heavy/Power Metallers, Eternal Reign, will be marching in with a new album in their hands. In addition, it will be released in their new local label, Pure Steel Records. If a Euro mixture of Heavy and Power is your thing, you will find it here, yet with an old school flavor to make it more interesting and entertaining.

It all started with the first piano tunes of the dreamy intro, “Drowned”. The first impression is, “oh, it’s another symphonic release”. The true answer came right as the first distorted guitar rhythm was brought into life. Since then, it was like hearing something taken out of the late 80s or early 90s. True Metal is here to stay and it came right from a country, where this style was bred to become stronger, which is Germany.

Eternal Reign display their might with old school written material, which consists of driving guitar/bass rhythms, heaviness of the old days, melodic assorted vocals with easy hearing chorus oriented tunes, a slight aura of keys and good beats. A type of production, which suited this band like a glove, delivered this salad on its rightful plate. Although they share similarities with other Euro-classic Metal bands, Eternal Reign have their own contribution to give and they do try to not make something heard a thousand times before. The first thing they should preserve is their producer; he did an amazing job on their sound type, which heralds back to the 80s.

Maybe the one thing this band did not need that much is the keys. No offense to the wonderful work of Bjorn Meyer, yet, on most of the songs his role was not actually felt. Even on the cover for the Sabbath classic, “Devil And Daughter”, which keys are a great addition, were barely noticed. Moreover, the type of sound, which the production provided for the band, is not that working well with keys (maybe more with piano than other effects). As the sound is more “brutal” or rather chunkier, it is hard to infuse the keys into the mix so they could fit in. For Eternal Reign, to really make use of their key master, they should change their sound a bit, although it is very good and it would be wrong to make changes in that department.

As for their material, it is not something you would call complex, yet, it is flowing, has its purpose, makes you want to do little headbanging here and there. The majority of songs are rather long, like six minutes or more, however, they will not give you the impression that they are long. Enjoyable are old schooler examples as “Beyond The Black”, “Lords Of Chaos”, “The Beast Within”, “Emptiness Devours” and “Gone Too Far” shows the power of what is true in Metal and what should be preserved. There are energies here, a sense to be classic and a type of toughness, which is fun to listen to.

Cheers for Eternal Reign for a good work, and congrats for starting over in a new label. The Dawn Of Reckoning should place them a step higher in the ladder of bands such as Heaven’s Gate, Primal Fear, Stratovarius and other Euro ones. Get this album now!

Steinmetal’s hits marked on the tracklist

1. Drowned
2. Beyond the Black
3. Lords of Chaos
4. Shadows of the Past
5. Emptiness Devours
6. Lost Clouds
7. Forgotten Sunrise
8. The Beast Within
9. Devil and Daughter (Black Sabbath Cover)
10. Gone Too Far
11. Still Remains

Lineup

Dirk Stühmer – Vocals
Michael Sebastian – Guitars
Thorsten Fünfhaus – Guitars
Jörg Hassel – Bass
Björn Meyer – Keyboards
Lennart Medebach – Drums