Album Review: Ethernity - The Human Race Extinction

Melodic progressive metal is a thing, but I don't always understand why. Not that I don't get the music, or like a fair bit of it, but the nomenclature is an issue. There is a lot of progressive metal, and the melodic kind especially, that isn't progressive. I don't see how playing a straight-forward song in 3/4 instead of 4/4 makes the music 'progressive'. If you need to do a statistical analysis to tell something isn't quite the usual way, it might as well have not been done in the first place. So the comparisons between Ethernity and bands like Symphony X and Evergrey come as both a blessing and a curse. Those are somewhat lofty standards (for the genre) to live up to.

What sets Ethernity apart from almost any other band playing this kind of music is Julie Colin, who brings a completely different approach to her vocals. Melodic progressive metal is jammed full of singers who either scrape the highest notes of their registers, or fake tough-guy grit. Julie sits comfortably in between, her voice naturally lower than the sky-scrapers, and with the right amount of attitude to not sound like she's trying too hard to be something she isn't.

Musically, we find ourselves in the style of metal where the guitars are ringing chords through the melodic choruses, while the verses syncopate rhythms, as opposed to playing melodic riffs. That is what is popular today, and there are plenty of albums where it works very well, but I can't help but always want to hear something more from the guitarists. When the genre was founded on Tony Iommi, it is sad to hear album after album where there isn't a single riff you could hum or sing along with the way Black Sabbath (and later Heaven & Hell) crowds always have.

Part of what that means is the songs tend to blend together until we get to the big melodic moment. It does unite the songs, which makes sense with this being a conceptual story, but lengthier albums could stand to have a little more diversity to capture and keep our attention. The big melodic moments, though, more often than not pay things off well enough to make that a minor concern.

"Grey Skies", in particular, hits with an immense power. The melody cascades down, with the power of the mix putting real weight behind it. Those are the kinds of moments that are undeniable (oh yeah, and that Symphony X maybe never delivered).

The entire first half of the record works well, hammering home songs with heavy riffs and big hooks. That run of songs is better than anything Evergrey has done since "Torn", which I have always felt is a terribly underrated record. The middle of the album, however, starts to bog down a bit. "Rise Of Droids"has a chorus that is a slow, dull chant, which is then followed by nearly three minutes of instrumental interlude that doesn't have anything to say, but merely serves as an intermission.

Things do pick up for the end of the record, so we can finish on a high note. That leaves us to make a final judgment. "The Human Race Extinction" is an album that has a lot of pluses on the ledger, but also a few minuses. Overall, the good outweighs the bad, and it stands as a solid and enjoyable record for fans of the style. It isn't one of the best records of the year, but it's a good one.