Eternal Storm – A Giant Bound to Fall (Review)

This is the second album from Spanish death metal band Eternal Storm.

A Giant Bound to Fall is a much anticipated album in the land of progressive death metal. 2019’s Come the Tide was a very well-regarded album, so five years later, what have the Eternal Storm of 2024 delivered to us?

Well, for lovers of the style A Giant Bound to Fall provides the listener with a massive 69 minutes of progressive melodic death metal to gorge on. This is music that isn’t lacking in ambition, as the opening and longest cut An Abyss of Unreason capably demonstrates. Eternal Storm have dialled up both the atmosphere and the heaviness on this release, but have achieved this via an enhanced progressive framework that makes for a simply stunning album.

Eternal Storm’s music is expansive and vast, delivering broad metallic soundscapes and immersive atmosphere for the listener to explore. Once again though, as with their last album, Eternal Storm don’t skimp on the aggression and heaviness; these aspects have been taken further this time, as have the more mood-focused components. Yes, as melodic, progressive, and atmospheric as A Giant Bound to Fall is, it’s also death metal at heart and knows how to tear off faces, it just does so with style and panache. It’s all wrapped up in a solid, powerful sound that gives the band the foundation needed to make a strong impact.

All of the songs are well-constructed and are expressive exemplars of the style. Eternal Storm have taken their time with these nine tracks, and their vision for progressive/melodic death metal is well-realised. There’s a compelling mixture of melodic beauty, sweeping darkness, layered atmosphere, and molten aggressive shredding on display throughout this record.

I very much like that for all of its obvious assets, A Giant Bound to Fall also benefits from depth and subtlety. There is a lot to explore across the imposing duration, but the band are so good at what they do that they have crafted the album with nuanced songwriting smarts and a diverse palette that have made for a record steeped in longevity.

A Giant Bound to Fall is an epic of multifaceted texture and accomplished metallic worldbuilding. Eternal Storm have returned bigger and better than ever. Don’t miss out on what this professional, passionate album has to offer.

Essential listening.