ETHS “III” review
ETHS
Candice : Vocals
Staif : Guitar/Keyboards
Greg : Guitar
Guillaume : Drums
Damien : Bass
First off, I want to introduce a new reviewer to the PWV crew, Pandie! She is a well versed metal head and I am stoked to have her on board to take on some of the metal albums. She knows her shit so I’m eager to hear what she has to say about more albums in the future! Stay tuned for more from her, you fuckholes!! – Denise (@punkworldviews)
Review by Pandie Suicide
ETHS is a French, female-fronted ‘modern metal’ band with multiple other metal-genre influences who have been around since 1999. III, out April 6 on Season of Mist, is their third studio album to date and was produced by Fredrik Nordström (In Flames, Arch Enemy) at Studio Fredman. The lineup consists of vocalist Candice Clot, guitarists Staif Bihl and Greg Rouviere, bassist Damien Rivoal, and drummer Guillaume Dupre and features goth, death metal, black metal, hardcore, and metalcore influences in its vocal and musical style and sound though ETHS tend to be thrust under the all-encompassing banner of ‘modern metal’ which is a shoe that seems to fit for them…almost.
Available Now on Season of Mist
Tracklist:
01. Voragine (English Edition) (3:45)
02. Harmaguedon (4:48)
03. Adonaï (English Edition) (4:00)
04. Gravis Venter (English Edition) (5:04)
05. Inanis Venter (4:25)
06. Sidus (4:47)
07. Proserpina (5:45)
08. Hercolubus (5:05)
09. Praedator (1:36)
10. Anatemnein (English Edition) (7:42)
11. Music (4:01)
12. 7 (3:53)
13. Cerebellum (4:12)
The first few tracks on III -‘Voragaine’ and ‘Harmaguedon’ are the calm before the storm – more melody than murder, but things start to become a bit more brutal as we go along. ‘Adonai’ – track 3 and incidentally the first single, is where things start to get hardcore, with melodic vocals that catch in the brain and English lyrics (on the English version at least), paired with evil death growls, throaty rasps and sexy soliloquy.
Track 5, ‘Inanis Venter’ is brutal, with soft melodic female vocals, sort of sing-songy, the kind of vocals that could sing you to your death, juxtaposed with low, evil hissing growls from hell. Add in Candice’s whispering in French and it makes for one sexy combination.
Things get changed up a little on Track 06, ‘Sidus’ which has some synths and breakdowns and an instrumental with some choir-like vocals very reminiscent of symphonic black metal, before getting into the heaviest growls and most guttural screams you could expect from any metal vocalist – male or female, which is pretty impressive. This song is dark and heavy and brutal as fuck, with a death metal flavor, mixed in with a touch of light, dreamy, symphonic influences and a black metal after-taste.
There are times on this album where lead chanteuse, Candice’s clean vocals almost could make one think of Corey Taylor’s clean vocals in a Slipknot track like ‘Sulfur’, haunting and pained, but with a dark, dirty beauty to them, yet when Candice gets into her growling that’s all thrown away and it’s death metal all the way, with some Arch Enemy, the Agonist and Otep comparisons here and there for good measure. There might even be a touch of Kidney Thieves in there and some piano parts that keep things sweeter . But we can’t just compare her to other female vocalists, simply because she is one too. Candice stands up against the boys too, the men even, her death growl is a force to be reckoned with.
The album closes out with the beautiful ‘Annateimen’, which is haunting with a touch of growling malice in the background. If you like some good metal with a mix of death, black and metalcore thrown in you’ll probably like ETHS, if you like female-fronted metal bands you’ll probably love ETHS, and if you liked previous albums from Eths like Teratologie, you also are definitely going to want to pick up III too.
About the Author
Denise Borders 39, Los Angeles. Denise founded PWV in 2008 and remains the primary manager and photographer/videographer. She is not secretly obsessed with Joey Cape.
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