Voice Of Instinct-Demo | ||||
| All Things Metal | ||||
| This is a killer technical death metal band from Italy, more than half a year ago I reviewed a cassette in the mail from Stefania of Eternal Tragedy. I listened to it and liked what I had heard. The guitar playing that comes from Stefy fucking kills. This a great band if you like technical Metal guitar, it is not a copy of, but it reminds me of the guitars in Death, Mercyful Fate, and such groups. This group consist of Stefania Ponzilacqua on guitars, vocals and bass and Iwan Hendrikx on drums. Anyway, this disc is only two songs but it definitely leaves an impression with me like the cassette did. The first song Eternal Tragedy is 6:36 long. It has a lot few tempo switches and definitely keeps you interested, along with some good lyrics and vocals that truly remind me of early death metal. Well done. The second sound Outside Of Mercy for some reason reminds me of Possessed, I think it's the vocals mainly. I couldn't find anything bad about this demo at all so check it out. | ||||
-Morbid Mark- | ||||
| Music Extreme | ||||
| I have listened Eternal Tragedy's first demo and also e-mailed with Stefy who told me that there was a big change in the music but I have not imagined the killer technical death metal that is on the two tracks that compose this demo. Stefania Ponzilacqua is a really great musician who has a lot of technique in her playing and you can see it here from the beginning to the end when she develops all the incredible riffs and phrases and also really good guitar solos. Both tracks are long and have multiple changes in tempo and rhythm that keep you wondering what will come next. Iwan Hendrikx drumming is really technical and follows perfectly what Stefania is doing with her guitar. I think he is th drummer that Eternal Tragedy needs. Stefania's vocals are really of the extreme type and have that reverb that characterized the voice of great Chuck Schuldiner in albums like Leprosy or even Spiritual Healing. A killer technical release that will keep your mouth open in disbelief while listening the multiple arrangements. A must have. | ||||
-Federico Marongiu- | ||||
| Metal Covenant | ||||
| What to do if you got the material for a recording but not the skills musicians to perform it? Well in Stefania's, mastermind of Italian Eternal Tragedy, case there were never any doubts. She recorded everything for herself, guitars, songs and bass, using a sequenced metronome. Well, I can say that there are easier ways to record an album. The drums were laid to tape later (!) by the Dutch session drummer Iwan Hendrikx. So what about the result then? The Voice Of Instinct Demo contains two tracks of very technical and progressive death metal. Well I must say that I am certainly not an expert on this kind of metal. Not that I don't like it or so- I can. But way to often when I listen to this progressive kind I realize that its way too much of everything. Too much meaningless and endless solos, often miss placed. But after some listening to Voice Of Instinct, I can recall some feelings that I haven't felt since I have listened the Human album with Death from 1991 and the early days of Opeth and sometimes even Rotting Christ. Eternal Tragedy's music is very technical and above all, well performed, something that deserves to be mentioned regarding to the way this demo was recorded. There are parts that are less technical, a thing that keeps the music "on the track" so to speak. Where some bands of this genre sweeps out in the void, and totally fail with solidness and harmony, Eternal Tragedy "keeps the red line" through their music. Eternal tragedy sounds as its name, there are no happy and glamorous vibes on Voice Of Instinct. Only melancholy and despair. The negative part concerning Voice Of Instinct are the production, the levels of the drum are a bit too low in my opinion. The song performance could be better till next time. I wonder what Eternal Tragedy would achieve with a proper line up, a fat recording budget and a good a studio. After all I must consider Eternal Tragedy is a very exciting band which would be interesting to hear more in the future. | ||||
-Tim Persson- | ||||
| Brutalism | ||||
| 2 Track promo of this Italian girl named Stefania and her drummer Iwan Hendrikx from The Netherlands. The band started at the end of 1999 but broke up quickly. Stefania left and still wrote songs and when founding a drummer these two songs were recorded. Eternal Tragedy plays technical death metal with good focus on the guitars in riffing and leads and rhythm patterns. Enough melody and creativity in the songs. The shortest track is more than 5 minutes and they never get boring. Vivid music that taste for more. So write some new tunes and make us happy. | ||||
-Twan Sibon- | ||||
| The Temple Of Metal It is always difficult to judge demos with only one or two songs. You don't know if these songs are the best that the band has and they just put them in the demo. But from Eternal Tragedy, because I had heard their previous work, even if it has only two songs this demo I know that Stefania may have more songs like them. The band begins back in 1999 with different name played epic metal, after the change of name the band change also their music direction and they went to progressive and death metal direction. With their latest demo back in 2001 with two songs again, the band deliver to us a mixture of these two kinds of metal. Now in 2004 the band returns with their newest demo with the title "Voice Of Instinct" and now the musical direction is more death metal with technical skills, so we have a technical death metal demo. Stefania, did an almost excellent work in the guitar section with some very good and difficult riffs. The drummer is just a machine gun and I really hope him to stay in the band and not just to record this demo. Also Stefania did a very good work in the production section. I didn't expect such a good production. | ||||
-Antwnis Maglaras- | ||||
| Benzoworld | ||||
| Eternal Tragedy of Stefania Ponzilacqua introduce us these two tracks of hyper technical and very intricate death metal while waiting for a future full length.Absolute originality of the tracks is very, very high , as we are talking about death metal on the same level of Atheist, Cynic, Nocturnus (even if in Eternal Tragedy keyboards are missing) and obviously Death, here paid homage in Individual Thought Patterns period. Stefania plays all the parts with the exception of the drums, played by Iwan Hendrix, and she also sing in a very dry growling that reminds a lot the typical Chuck Schuldiner's and Kelly Schaefer's of Atheist style. Relative originality instead, even if extreme in the idea,is due to the fact that this type of music was done by the already mentioned bands too. Anyway outstanding the will of working out this type of music and the very used technique is huge. In the complex, the two tracks of Voice Of Instinct can be very interesting for the lovers of this type of music and maybe who knows, fans of the underground scene too. Eternal Tragedy is definitely a part that was missing in the Italian techno-death metal scene. | ||||
-Bonetti Denis- | ||||
First Demo |
| Music Extreme |
| Pure metal is what this band does. Here we have the music coming directly from the mind of Stefania Ponzilacqua. And this is a music full of variations. I have to remark that this music is very difficult to label because you have elements of classic metal, elements of thrash metal bands, some death metal and a lot of technical parts (there is heavy use of ultra heavy guitars combined with clean ones, this is full of guitar melodies and solos too). This is really original music within a metal context. Here we have different vocals, from the more high pitched ones that are sang by Stefy (really powerful, sometimes really thrashing!!!) to the more mid pitched ones in "Murder Of Souls. Both compositions are quite long (one over six minutes and the other one is ten minutes long) in order to deliver the multiple ideas that Stefy has created not only instrumentally but also vocally. I have to say that she almost has ready the second Eternal Tragedy that according to her words is even more extreme than this one. Eternal Tragedy rules! |
-Federico Marongiu- |