ZERO ILLUSIONS

Zero Illusions hail from Gothenburg, Sweden and were formed in the Summer of 2004. 'Enter Eternity' is the band's first full release on their own label and is the follow up to 2007's 'Prologue to Eternity'. The band are comprised of vocalist Bjorn Asking, guitarist Janne Kuthje, bassist Tomas Reinerson and Andre Holmqvist on drums. The first track on the album is 'My Belief' which is pretty straightforward up tempo rocker with a nice riff. I was immediately struck by how much Asking sounds like Biff Byford, although he probably has a wider vocal range than the Saxon frontman. Next up is 'Don't Be Afraid' which ploughs pretty much the same furrow as it's predecessor. 'Am I Too Old' follows and, lyrically at least, sees the band questioning today's younger generation. The next few tracks continue in much the same vein and feature some nice, heavy riffs. It has to be said that, while the muscianship is first rate and there is nothing intrinsically 'wrong' with these songs, they seem to lack that spark that would lift them above the competition in a extremely crowded genre. All that changes when the intro begins to the seventh track, 'Left Alone'. This is an absolute gem of a track, from its atmospheric, early Maidenesque, intro which evolves into a monstrous riff ala Sabbath, to the vocal gymnastics and its scintillating solo. One can only hope that the band are capable of producing tracks of this calibre in the future. If this were a vinyl release, it is likely that 'Left Alone' would be the first cut on Side 2. As such, it is my opinion that 'Side 2' is the stronger of the two sides. Tracks such as 'What Remains' and the excellent closer 'The Moment I Fear' are quite simply better than the songs on the first half of this release. In essence, 'Enter Eternity' is by no means a bad album. It is well produced, with a good, solid sound and the performances of all four members are definitely up to standard. My one quibble, as already mentioned, is the fact that the track listing could have been ordered somewhat better so that the quality was spread throughout the album instead of in patches. On the other hand, a band who can produce an epic such as 'Left Alone' can be forgiven an awful lot!

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Sound Pollution

Album

ENTER ETERNITY

Review by Dave Uphill

RUNNING TIME:

45:32

RELEASE DATE:

16th July 2009

TRACK LISTING

1) My Belief
2) Don't Be Afraid
3) An I Too Old
4) Face of the Fortune
5) The Way I Live
6) Make This Complete
7) Left Alone
8) Once In My Life
9) What Remains
10) Like Yourself
11) The Moment I Fear

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

Sweden

"...the track listing could have been ordered somewhat better so that the quality was spread throughout the album instead of in patches..."