Liste der Bands Symphonic Metal Aeternitas (GER) Requiem

The debut album from Aeternitas is a piece of gothic metal that I got by surprise without knowing anything from this band and I can say it was a very good buy.

These Germans worked in a very well fashioned Gothic Metal with classical music influences and the first song has all it's glamor in a non-metal song, filled with great female chorus - a great piece of music there! Then the second song gets to business and the first grunting vocals appear along with a more operatic clean vocal, but it's a very short song that just opens the way to "Graduale", a faster song with a very good rhythm. One can say that they are heavily influenced by Lacrimosa, and yes, it's no shame to admit that because to me, they really are. The musical quality is high but there is one thing annoying me a bit on these first tracks: the drums that came out from a rhythm box, and one of these rhythm boxes that you clearly notice!! Nevertheless that's something that we can live with, like the weird keyboards on "Tractus" that bring electro-goth influences to the song... Going further into the album, we have 13 songs that compose a good variety of moments: pauses like the great "Mors stupebit" (one of my favorites of the album), the slower tempo of "Rex tremendae" it's also very interesting. The "doomy" "Sanctus" is also a good track with some hypnotic pianos and a vicious guitar riff, and the last two songs close the album with a golden key (great songs). One thing I didn't mention is that the German's Latin sounds a bit weird. I know that the language had very different accents, depending on the region it was spoken, but I'd rather prefer to hear a cleaner pronunciation, by using the "conventional" Italian accent.

In the end this is a very awkward album to judge: it has some great work on classical instruments, good rhythms and composing. The vocals vary from great to reasonable, the drums are just an awful rhythm box and here and there you with they really shut up, specially on the faster parts of the album. So, I'd say that "Requiem" is a masterpiece partially ruined by some awkward ideas and unconvincing drums. Forgetting that, you will be in presence of a great album with superb moments, specially when the band uses the female choruses.