Eternal Lord
Blessed Be This Nightmare
Ferret
Ferret mines the U.K.'s Black Market
Like golf opportunities in Borneo or the collected correspondence of Pope Pius IV, U.K. metalcore is something we Yanks (or people anywhere, really, even in England) rarely think about unless given a compelling reason, e.g., a band member owes us money. Which probably has little or nothing to do with why guitarists Chris Gregory and Shaun Zerebecki, drummer Stuart Mackay and singer Samuel Ricketts (since departed) bailed on the Hunt for Ida Wave en masse to form Eternal Lord with ex-Carnival of Horrors bassist Nick Gardner in 2005. Still, the Swindon-based quintet’s alleged migration to metal proper has drawn sporadic fire from those in the know (read: spuds who spend most of their lives on message boards), especially since ex-I Killed The Prom Queen frontman Edward Butcher took Ricketts’ place.
Given the band’s pedigree and cover-boy image, the most remarkable thing about their first album is that it harbors some perfectly good utilitarian metal, obliquely comparable to Satan’s Host minus the blackness and theatrics, or a less Oi-tilted Raging Speedhorn. Sure, they slouch too close to Gothenburg at times, as on “Set Your Anchor.” But Mackay’s an inventive drummer, Gardner has a knack for crafting intriguingly syncopated drones and Gregory/Zerebecki display moments of solid middleweight brilliance, as on “Get to Fuck”’s quiet interlude and pretty much all of “All Time High.” Butcher’s the wild card, a capable growler who otherwise sounds like he’s auditioning for what Anorexia Nervosa might become after merging with Terror and moving to Solid State. —Rod Smith
