osnametal.de reviews 'Diaries from the gallows'
What´s your first thought when it comes to swedish Melodic Death Metal? You will certainly spontaneously think of In Flames, At the Gates, Soilwork or The Haunted. Eventide origin from Sweden as well, and surprise surprise, they play Melodic Death Metal. Thus you could suspect a great similarity to the mentioned bands.
 
But this is only partly true, as now and then references to Dimmu Borgir appear, which creates an interesting and fresh combination. Measured Keyboard passages, campfire guitar soli and engrossed violins burst through the otherwise rather hard riffs and the aggressive growls. Occasionally you hear clean vocals, which are almost immanent to the Gothenburg scene. The screams and growls fit very well to the overall concept.
 
The song structures are very diversified, great guitar solos and intros supported by keyboards enrich the sound even more. The guys of Eventide (Jacob Magnusson on vocals, guitars and electronics, Sebastian Olsson on guitars, Thomas Magnusson on bass and Max Seppälä on drums and electronics) manage to satisfy the listener, especially with their unique sound which differs from known bands like In Flames or Soilwork. A clean and powerful production and an adequate, abstract artwork help the album to stand out of the flood of Melodic Death Metal bands.
 
An interesting song is the calm instrumental „Vargavidderna“, however my favourite tracks is „The Skeleton Who Sold His Skin“, which combines all elements of Melodic Death and shows best the skills of this quartet.
 
Altogether a very convincing album which will definately play a long time in my CD Player.

Score: 4,5 of 5.
 
Original review: Mandra for Osnametal.de

Translated by Torsten Maibohm

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