SOUNDOFMETAL.SE (EN)

8/10

Avant-garde is a very loose term when describing music, because you will never know how it sounds. The only similarity between two avant-garde bands, is that in both you will say "what the fuck!" or "holy shit!” in some moment, or some other surprise exclamation. But even though I've read that "Eternal Deformity" is a avant-garde metal band, I can’t hear that. The music itself it's too organized, too easy to hear, but still I find the term suitable.

Dark cabaret isn't a genre known to a lot of people. In fact, many people are probably wondering what it is. Whoever hears this album will probably soon know what I'm talking about. That "circus" like feeling, that "cabaret-like" music... but no, this doesn't feel like gothic. That's probably the best description to Dark cabaret. Yes, it's very loose, so that's why this band is tagged as avant-garde.

So with a melodic death base, this band strikes as a 2008 surprise. Clean vocals, bizarre keyboards and some symphonic arrangements make this band very similar to "Arcturus", the dark cabaret thing and some female vocals remind me of "Stolen Babies", and the melodic death metal within some gothic passages (because dark cabaret is quite related to gothic) is quite similar to what "Dark Lunacy" does (for those who know the band). Fans of those bands will probably find something nice within "Eternal Deformity’s" music.

The music itself is also quite interesting, to those who were worried about it being melodic death metal (a controversial term in today's metal scene). Some songs are based upon riffs, other upon the keyboards (probably the best feature), and others, like the "Depeche Mode" cover, Little 15, upon vocals. My favorite is the symphonic driven "Lovelorn", the closer of the album.

"Eternal Deformity" has what I like most when I hear metal; experimenting with it and avoiding as much as possible everything cliché in it, even when playing cliché music. May every surprise be as pleasant as this one.