Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Eclipse
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2017
Length: 41:57
Rating: 4/5
Two years have flown by, and it’s time for a new Eclipse album. The Swedish melodic rock revivalists are striking for the fourth time, this time with an album they’ve titled »Monumentum«. It’s certainly not a musical monument, but it’s definitely another outstanding record, one that simply confirms the band has kept its creative charge and carried it over very effectively from the lovely predecessor »Armaggedonize« to the new studio album.
Erik Mårtensson, lead songwriter, composer, producer, guitarist (I’d almost say multi-instrumentalist) and of course vocalist, is fully focused on his home band despite being involved in countless projects. So Eclipse always get Martensson’s very best. The best ideas, the best sound, superb vocal input. Swedish perfectionism with no equal. In all of this, Martensson’s talent remains worthy of total admiration. There aren’t many musicians this hyperproductive today. Especially not in the younger generation Erik belongs to.
»Monumentum« also maintains the ultra-melodic seductiveness that’s a trademark of the Eclipse name. It’s that sensual refinement that has been coming out of Scandinavia ever since the days of ABBA, showing up in a string of signature chorus hooks across all kinds of genre forms of musical magic.
»Monumentum« has it all. Many different moods. The songs unfold in different time signatures. The album opens, as expected, with a bang in Vertigo, and Martensson’s aggressive vocal approach right at the start totally catches you off guard. The high dynamics keep going into the extremely seductive Never Look Back, which is sure to become a live favorite among the band’s fans and a permanent fixture in their setlist. The album then swings on into the darkly dramatic, mystical and solemn The Downfall of Eden (the lead motif has a touch of folk-Celtic flavor), calms down a bit with the yearning, punchy ballad Hurt, and then heads back to the hunt for musically punchy catchiness with Born to Lead, which carries a bit of the opening theatrics of the steel-hard hit Wake Me Up. The decibel count climbs again as the band chews its way through to one of the album’s most stacked songs, No Way Back. These last two, Born to Lead and No Way Back, absolutely have to find a place in the band’s setlists for their upcoming shows.
What remains special about Eclipse is the production, which, compared to what we’re generally used to in melodic rock, speaks to the listener with incredible sharpness, favoring guitars that are pushed decisively to the front. The riffs grab extremely effectively. They carry songwriting and idea-wise punch, and with that a set of eleven new songs without a single weak moment. At the same time, the band also provides an atmospheric curtain of synth drapes that contribute barely noticeably, yet still very importantly, to the creation of pomp and bombast.
Martensson gets to be a better vocalist from album to album. This time too his voice has gained even more punch, while his musicality and authority remain beyond dispute. Throughout the songs you can feel the hard-working chemistry of the quartet doing its thing. Superb interplay and heart in the delivery of the material. The drive and commitment of the quartet come through especially in the transitional parts, where the drumming is richly varied and makes the most of the available space to work in dynamic transitional rolls. It goes without saying that Magnus Henriksson’s work is another trip into a world of bold and extravagant guitar adventures that never run out of dynamite. A master remains a master.
»Monumentum« is an album that turns on a dime, that’s how high its dynamics run, along with the sheer amount of theater in the shifting moods the Swedes breathe into the songs so successfully. Not just a fully worthy successor to »Armaggedonize«, but a notch more mature in artistic songwriting terms and hitting even harder in musical invasiveness, putting it right up there with »Bleed And Scream« (2012). May the band’s unbridled eruption of musical evolution go on and on. »Monumentum« is another outstanding album from the band, and its fans will adopt it in no time.
Eclipse – Never Look Back (official video):
Lineup
Erik Mårtensson – vocals, guitar
Magnus Henriksson – guitar
Philip Crusner – drums
Magnus Ulfstedt – bass guitar
Production
Erik Mårtensson
Tracklist
1. Vertigo
2. Never Look Back
3. Killing Me
4. The Downfall of Eden
5. Hurt
6. Jaded
7. Born To Lead
8. For Better or for Worse
9. No Way Back
10. Night Comes Crawling
11. Black Rain
