Review Summary: The spiritual successor to Rainbowland.
Seventh Avenue has always had a taste for the power metal/speed metal hybrid formula. Although a good portion of the tracks on the previous records stay true to the formula, only the debut Rainbowland, and it's spiritual successor Eternals truly waives that hybrid banner.
Eternals successfully attempts to make it's tracks more compact and straightforward than in previous records. The unusual stops and shifts that were toyed with in Between the worlds and South gate are wisely removed. Because of the added infusion of aggression and speed in Eternals, that concept would have derailed some of the faster tracks and taken the fire out of the composition. Lyrically, Eternals is a major improvement over previous albums. Before Eternals the lyrics were written by various members of the band with varying degrees of success. Their drummer (Mike Pflüger) seemed to have the magic touch in every song he wrote lyrics in. It's clear that the other band members got a clue, as all the song's lyrics in both Eternals and Terium were written exclusively by him.
Eternals has a strong core of tracks that make up the backbone of the album. The auditory artillery bombardment that is the title track kicks thing off thrash metal style, which sets the tone for the tracks to follow. "Raging fire" delivers compelling riffs and lyrics. "Infinite King" summarizes the album in the same way "May the best one win" and "Open your mind" did before it in Southgate and Between the worlds. The best track off the record is cleverly placed at the very end. The fist pumping "Domination of sin" ties everything together so well, and has such a tight composition, you won't be able to stop listening to it over and over again.
Normally, for many other bands, tracks like these would be the meat of the material and the rest of the album might as well have a giant sticker on it that says "skip me plenty". However, Seventh Avenue is one of those uncommon musical oddities that takes the time and the effort to put something special in each track. "Juggler of worlds" brings some nice choruses to the table and "Remission" and "Heaven can't wait" unleash powerful twin leads. Storm III satisfactorily concludes the string of instrumentals that started in Southgate titled "Storm". "Voices", which is the only slow paced track mellows thing out a bit before the conclusion of the album.
Although Eternals could have used more ballads alongside Voices, it picks up were Rainbowland left off, and takes it's place as Seventh Avenue's most aggressive record.
