voila_la_scorie Into Eternity's first two albums have scored pretty poorly on this web site; however, their third album "Buried in Oblivion" sees a full four stars. I've read some favourable reviews out there with one reviewer on the Metal Archives site calling this their best album!

The sticker on the shrink wrap when I bought the CD said, "Progressive metal for the death metal fan; Death metal for the progressive metal fan". That should give you a good impression what to expect, though I would less there's less death and more prog. The songs feature tight technical playing and lots of awesome riffs that show up like on "Desolation" and "Isolation". There's plenty of time-signature juggling as well. The vocals range from deep growls and shredded throats to soaring, clean vocals and clean vocal harmonies. One reviewer said the guitar sounds are both the "tweedly tweedly" type and the "chugga chugga" type. Fair enough!

Two points that may sway interest are 1) most of the songs feature the same elements so it takes a few listens to be able to distinguish tracks and 2) all the lyrics revolve around "desolation" and "isolation" and mental anguish and depression. I think Pain of Salvation ruined that for me with their "Perfect Element" album. Enough broken people concepts!

I personally am really surprised to know this band came from Regina, Saskatchewan. Regina has a strong metal scene that I didn't know about, though Kick Axe and the seventies rock/hard rock band, Streetheart, are both from Regina. I'm really impressed to hear a band with this calibre of playing and this sound coming out of a Prairie city. I have since bought their fifth album and have their latest album on order.

siLLy puPPy INTO ETERNITY dates all the way back to 1997 in Regina, Saskatchewan in Canada’s central plains region by founding members Tim Roth (vocals, guitar), Scott Krall (bass) and Jim Austin (drums) and together these guys crafted a sound that mixed progressive metal with melodic death metal and a touch of power metal. After the arrival of Chris McDougall on keyboards the band created their first self-titled debut that was released independently in 1999 and then re-released the following year on the DVS label. The album showed promise but displayed an immature band trying to get it right.

The following DEAD OR DREAMING could be thought of as the band’s first official release which came out in 2001, also released twice first by DVS and then by Century Media Records. This album has ten tracks and squeaks past the 44 minute mark with lyrics written by Tim Roth and musical scores crafted by the entire band. In addition to the three original members and McDougall on keyboards, INTO ETERNITY added a second guitarist with Daniel Nargang with all members contributing to backing vocals including some extra help from Amy Ozog on “Elysium Dream", "Selling God" and "Cyber Messiah.”

Unfortunately INTO ETERNITY delivers a style of progressive metal that i don’t find very appealing. In many ways this band is a one-trick pony despite showcasing a wide variety of metal styles. While in its wake the band conjures up death metal growls, thrash metal riffs, power metal melodies and progressive metal complexities, the composiitons seem to all follow the same projectile and chord progressions with a clean vocal style that alternates with some death metal growls. The overall production has one of those polished sounds that takes the grit off of the metal distortion and allows the squeaky clean vocals to shine through.

There’s not much i can say about this one. I find the vocals utterly irritating and cookie cutter rhythms and compositional styles are too monotonous for my tastes. The acoustic parts with clean vocals that pump up the synthesizers are just sappy and insincere and even the riffs are boring. The death metal growls are ridiculously strewn about with no rhyme or reason. This silly canned formula just makes me think of those high quality production videos with pretty boys letting their hair blow around with fans as they try to take the focus off the music. It’s hard to find anything good to say about this really because it pushes all my *hate it* buttons and i’m quite fond of cheese and pop hooks. Yawn.

Kev Rowland Canadian act Into Eternity released their debut album through DVS back in 1999, with another four coming in quick succession on Century Media, the last two of which two featured Stu Block (Iced Earth) on vocals. The band then decided to put recording on hold, so that they could concentrate on touring internationally. Amanda Keirnan joined on vocals to replace Block, giving the band more depth and breadth with her ability to growl with the best of them as well as providing strong soprano when the need arises. The band decided that after ten years away from the recording scene it was time to return with their sixth album, and they are back with ‘The Sirens’.

Spending many years on the road has obviously paid dividends as the guys are incredibly tight, with melodic guitar runs as sharp as one could wish for, while the rhythm section move between providing a foundation and moving more into the secondary melody. Amanda is a real find, the perfect conduit for the style of music they are performing, which is a mix between Arch Enemy, Death, Opeth and King’s X. It is deep, it is pummelling, it has hints of Judas Priest yet somehow stays more melodic while losing none of the brutality. Some of the guitar solos, such as on the killer song “Sandstorm”, are breathtakingly quick and somehow the band manages to groove and move while at the same time rocking like absolute and total bastards.

They have discovered that fine line between melodic metal and out and out brutality and speed, and have then trampled all over it. This is incredibly clever and solid metal that has much in homage to the death and thrash scene as it does to the prog, and then somehow mixes it all together to create something that fans of all three genres will do well to discover. Let’s just hope that we don’t have to wait another ten years for the next one, surely not.

UMUR "Into Eternity" is the self titled debut album from Canadian metalcore/ melodic death metal act Into Eternity. The album was originally self-released in 1999 but was picked up for a 2000 re-release by DVS Records.

My introduction to Into Eternity was through their 2nd and 3rd full-length studio albums "Dead or Dreaming (2001)" and "Buried in Oblivion (2004)". Into Eternity is a band that will dazzle a lot of people on initial listen as their music sounds deceivingly catchy and intriguingly technical. After a while you come to realise that the songs aren´t really that catchy and that the technical parts are not that intriguing either. This debut album by Into Eternity might be the best example I know, of a thin musical shell that upon the slightest touch will burst and leave you with nothing. The album seriously lacks compositional depth.

The music on the album features elements from different metal genres like Thrash metal, metalcore and melodic death metal. The death metal part is mostly due to the growling vocals which occasionally appear. The music is very melodic with a lot of clean sung choruses. The music isn´t technical in a tech metal sense but it´s pretty well played. There are some acoustic playing put in for variation in songs like "A Frozen Escape" and the title track. As such Tim Roth who handles the lead vocals have a pretty good voice but the melody lines even though they are very melodic are not memorable at all. Almost every song on the album sounds exactly the same and I can´t remember any of them after listening to the album. The album is somewhat a paradox. Extremely melodic yet not memorable at all. The clean vocals that on initial listen sounds very good also end up annoying the hell out of me. They are way to nice and not edgy enough for me. It doesn´t help to have a good singer when the parts he sings are so generic and at times downright cringe worthy. It has to be mentioned here that the growling vocals are very badly executed too. They sound so weak. Damn it! if you mean it! Sing it like you do.

The musicianship is as such allright. The playing is faultless but not very inspired or innovative.

The production is really bad and of course a bad sound quality doesn´t help music that is already weak. It´s especially the guitar sound I have a hard time appreciating.

It´s very rarely that I give albums 1 star but this album contains the kind of metal music that gives metal a bad name IMO. In my world that´s close to a mortal sin and Into Eternity will pay for their evil deeds with this 1 star rating (LOL). You have probably guessed it by now but I will recommend that you don´t waste your time or money on this album. If you´re curious about Into Eternity listen to some of their later albums instead. It´s about the same style but the sound is better and there are more memorable moments on those albums. This album should only be purchased if you like very tame and polished metalcore/ melodic death metal. It´s really no wonder why this album was self-financed and self-released the first time around.

Conor Fynes 'The Scattering Of Ashes' - Into Eternity (6/10)

I cannot quite see why this album has such a low overall rating. The musicianship on this album is fantastic, the songwriting is (for the most part) decent, and there are even a few songs that stand out as being 'outstanding.' While this isn't a masterpiece by any measure, the remarkable energy and sporadic nature of this album deserve their fair share of credit.

I'm actually quite suprised that a band like Into Eternity meets such disdainful opinions from this site. The whole meaning of being progressive is trying out new things, and being unpredictable. Into Eternity fashion themselves as one of the most progressive metal bands out there today. While they may not have 'A Change of Seasons' type epics, or random jazz interludes, there has to be progressive credit due to a band that can manage to work every possible metal vocal style into one phrase!

While alot of the songs could have definately been improved with a bit more songwriting pose, its definately worth a few good listens. Songs like 'Severe Emotional Distress', 'Timeless Winter', and 'Surrounded By Night,' even demonstrate that the band has the potential to possibly make a true masterpiece, in their own time. But as it stands, this album falls short. All in all though, pretty good music (with the exception of a few hurtful songs such as the painful 'Eternal'), and a hopeful foundation of what's to come!