Eternal Tears Of Sorrow - Before The Bleeding Sun

*=Staff's pick	Sweet Lilith Of My Dreams* Another Me Red Dawn Rising* Upon The Moors Sakura No Rei Sinister Rain Lost Rune Of Thunder Tar Still Flows Angelheart, Ravenheart(Act I:Before The Bleeding Sun)*

Genre	Death/Gothic Metal	Altti Veteläinen	Vocals
Tracks	9	Jarmo Puolakanaho	Guitar
Runningtime	43 Min.	Risto Ruuth	Guitar
Label	Spinefarm Records	Altti Veteläinen	Bass
Release	03 May 2006	Petri Sankala	Drums
Country	Finland	Janne Tolsa	Keyboards
Similar artists	Amorphis, Dark Tranquillity, Moonspell

Eternal Tears Of Sorrow is a band that has been around for quite some time now. This summer it's actually ten years since they released their debut album. Before The Bleeding Sun is their fifth offering and the first release in five years. Their previous two albums were fairly successful which makes the five year hiatus they've just done quite strange. On this break the members explored other musical areas, Altti and Petri for example released a great album with the gothic rockers For My Pain.

Sweet Lilith Of My Dreams opens the album in good way, not fantastic but the song receives my interest from the very beginning. Their sound could be described as melodic death with touches of gothic metal because of the melancholic melodies. Another Me doesn't reach me at all and is in fact a quite mediocre composition. Red Dawn Rising is all about gothic metal and Altti really proves that he has got a great clean voice on this one. The song is catchy and melodic to the bone, probably the finest moment on Before The Bleeding Sun. After this great track the quality is lowered, the songs seem to blend with each other and the reason for this is the constant lack of melodies that moves you. The song writing is fairly good all the way but nothing out of the ordinary either. However, that description has nothing to do with the last track Angelheart, Ravenheart. This majestic and pompous composition really sticks out with its fantastic arrangements and epic choirs, maybe a bit repetitive but still very good and works as a perfect closer.

This was actually my first encounter with Eternal Tears Of Sorrow and my expectations were quite high since I've heard a lot of good things about them before. After listening to Before The Bleeding Sun it's safe to say that my expectations were a bit too high and instead I'm sitting here quite disappointed. I really like the way they sound but the songs seem to lack that certain something to receive my full interest. This is fairly above average but really nothing more. I can sense the potential they are in possession of though and hopefully this can be revealed on their next album instead.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	7	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Hawk