Eternity X - The Edge

„The Edge“ was the first album from Eternity X on the Prog label Angular Records. It was recorded back in 1997. Their third album is a prog metal concept album where different stories go around for the same theme. The theme is about people that find in some situations their limits and that are confrontated with the edge. Soon the intro „The Edge (Introduction) shows that the musicians of Eternity X are dancing on different weddings. The song is variable with different styles and so it is not stopping on the one-way street like many progmetal bands do. We can here symphonic passages and powermetal or mainstream sequences.

Also the following „Fly away“ is a variable structured hymn. 8 minutes of virtuoso instrumental passages with a straight refrain and mainstream like vocal sequences.

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana opens „The Confession. This song is about a man who is standing short before a suicide where he is telling his pain and wants his father to forgive him. The track is a spheric progmetal ballad that lives from impressing vocals and varaible passages where a lot of things happen. Lots of rhythm and tempo changes and the first class voice of Keith Sudano round up a first class progmetal song together with an awesome instrumental part with guitar solo and keyboard support. „The Edge Part 2 (The looking glass)“ begins with a guitar instrumental part that is typical for progmetal or powermetal. Fast, hard and playfully. Guitars and keyboard alternately take the melody line. With the vocals also the typical powermetal drums set in. But in this song the band made a big mistake. The parts with the opera vocals (that are not performed by ladies) is nothing else than disgusting and shouldn't have to be in this song. Ok, this parts are short, but they come back more often. The rest of this track is really good with partly typical guitar and key duels.

„A day in verse“ is more in the category melodic prog and starts with a wonderful piano intro, before the vocals set in. The main arrangement of this song is balladesque for a long time and so this is a welcome change to the hardness of the album. It is the harmony between symphonic guitar and piano who carries that song. Some heavy parts don't disturb the atmospheric mood.

Again the 10 minutes longtrack „Imaginarium“ starts silent til a keyboard supported progmetal part set in which leads the track to hardness. After the keyboard sequence the powermetal guitar appears and the song is galopping in that way a long time. Tempo changes when the vocals arrive and the instruments get more in the back. This is the way back to the beginning with its silent feeling. But only for a short time cause the guys get back to power soon. Very intresting in this longtrack is the seemingly endless rhythm and tempo changes from balladesque to symphonic and to powerful.

Well done !

„The Edge Part 3 (Existence chapter 1,000,009)“ brings the meanwhile well know Eternity X vibes. Again changes between progmetal, powermetal and playful symphonic passages. The intrumental parts are really heavy (some classic adaptions included) and the vocals are more in harmonies. A good song but with less surprises. With „The Edge of Madness“ once again a big increas follows. First a piano and vocal part, that remembers a little bit to Geoff Mann in Twelfth Night times. But it takes not a long time and the band finds their power again. The moody change between hard and soft parts work fantastic here. The vocalist performs different roles, sometimes opera like, sometimes atmospheric, sometimes whispering. Here he shows all his facettes of his fantastic voice. Different solos, mainly the keyboards, give the song an additional kick. The keyboard / guitar duels are from the best. A telephone lady opens „Rejection“ with their announcements. A shorter song that has not to be more explained cause everything in this song happened before too. After this hard progmetal track the listener can cure with the beginning part of „Baptized by fire“ that leads to a hymn prog metal section soon. Forwarding power metal guitars change with smoothy vocal passages. In this longtrack the band once again show all the talent they got. With this album they have to be counted to the first league of progmetal bands. „The Edge...Legacy/Reprise“ ends this masterpiece. It is beginning with a classical melodic part that leads to a progmetal arrangement. Changing moods again in this song until a sequence of the opening song „The Edge“ close the circle.

A great album from a great band. Unfortunately we didn't hear more from them after this output.

Points  8/10

review by Kerb