mourner
Norwegian black metal at the highest level of proficiency. From the punk-fueled Gunmetal Sky to the hymnic (!) and almost symphonic Hymn everything is exactly what it needs to be. I'm not absolutely sure yet but I don't think that Mundicide will be able to surpass To Become the Great Beast but it's a worthy follow up.
Favorite track: Hymn.
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ETERNITY is the fire burning in the blackest night, a gateway to enlightenment through blacklight illumination: timeless True Norwegian Black Metal for all times....
ETERNITY's beginnings go all the way back to the '90s and the golden age of black metal, when the flames of burning churches lit up the northern sky, echoing around the world. The death of Euronymous had far-reaching consequences for the creation of ETERNITY and its founder and frontman Evighet, who was in a band with Blasphemer at the time. When Blasphemer was called upon to join Mayhem, Evighet took his riffs and ideas and went on to create his own band - ETERNITY. Through all this time, the name, the symbols, and the fundamental philosophy have remained the same.
After a few years in Oslo, playing in various acts with Blasphemer, Apollyon, Tristan among others, not least of which later ETERNITY members J.Röe and T.Ødegaard, Evighet decided to leave behind the city's sickening glow and turn to the purity of the Norwegian mountains. During years of self-imposed exile, much of what remains essential ETERNITY today was created. Two demos were recorded between 2001-2005, and the work culminated with the album Bringer of the Fall in 2006. A recording contract with SOULSELLER RECORDS was eventually secured, and a few years later, the time had finally come for ETERNITY to arise as a band.
Rejoining forces with T. Ødegaard (Nocturnal Breed, Ekrom) and J.Röe (Old Man's Child, Nattefrost), ETERNITY started rehearsing the material that would make up To Become the Great Beast and went into studio near the end of 2016. With Blasphemer joining on bass for the recording and Brynjard Tristan (Dimmu Borgir) visiting to lay down additional vocals, the combined energy and shared history of the those involved made it possible to create something truly special and timeless. After three years of hard work and dedication, To Become the Great Beast was finally ready to be let loose.
The Satanic masterpiece To Become the Great Beast was released by SOULSELLER on Friday the 13th, September 2019, to great critical acclaim. In the meantime, V. Fineidet (Den Saakaldte, Sovereign) had taken up the mantle as bass player and thus the band was complete. Playing live now being an option, ETERNITY took to the stage and played gigs around Norway with bands such as Mork and Dødheimsgard.
Just as things were looking good, the world closed down. The existing plans for an EP to keep momentum up were quickly shelved in favor of creating the next full-length album, as the material that would eventually become Mundicide took on a will and life of its own. Another three years of hard work and dedication followed.
After the soul-searching horrors of Great Beast, the original intention was to create something a bit lighter and less harrowing, but with tyrannical lockdowns, people staring fearfully at each other from behind masks, and the coming of war and the world's slow descent into global conflict, Mundicide soon found a will and a voice of its own. From the alluring temptation of the sinister in opener "Journey Towards the Darkside" to the mighty war horns signaling the End of Days in closing doomsday epic "The Seventh Seal" via tales of the plague, black magic, and struggles with addiction and autodestructive urges - all set under the looming specter of nuclear war - Mundicide is a many-faceted primal scream about the state of the world today and a broken mirror reflection of the pain of living through such times.
Over a period of three years of work, Mundicide became the album it needed to be to give strength and hope to get the band through the days of darkness. This is the first ETERNITY album to have taken form with the band working as a collective, and it helped them retain sanity in a world gone mad.
Mundicide means the killing of the world, and the cover artwork shows human arms holding weapons, growing out of the planet. This represents a dual potential future outcome. Humanity finds itself at a threshold. In contrast to the seemingly unavoidable destruction of our species and its homeworld, there is the hope that we can still live up to our potential and the evolutionary commands of the planet that brought us forth. Working together with the Earth Herself, we could bring about a glorious age of interstellar travel where we colonize the galaxy and kill other worlds instead of our own.
In a time of media overload where the bombardment of propaganda is ceaseless and the veil of Maya seems thicker and more impenetrable than ever, in a world of lost hope where religion is dead and we are left to believe in nothing but our sinful path to self-destruction and the transitory nature and inevitable end of all things, in these dark Orwellian times where war is peace and truth is treason, the only glimmer of hope seems to be the faintly glowing torch of the Lightbringer, beckoning to us from behind the veil with promises of a different future for humanity and its planet. With Mundicide, ETERNITY holds that torch high and proud!
credits
released July 7, 2023
Mixed and mastered by Tom Kvaalsvold
Recorded in Fias Co Studio by Sverre Daehli
Cover art by All Things Rotten
What an impressive piece of black metal. This one-man hurricane is pure art. Sgah‘gahsowáh creates an haunting atmosphere. He puts so much soul in his music. Sælzer Bub
Blackbraid quickly followed up their 2022 debut in 2023 with more native folk infused furious black metal. This is by no means a sophomore slump as it is equally excellent, methodical, melodical, and approachable as the first record. 9/10 RJ
Dutch full-female black metal duo making some of the finest trad second wave old school black metal. Melodic, punchy, sometimes dissonant, with memorable riffs and very well executed guitar work. Simply put, a must have! sachavonkarl74
