Etta Zero
The Last Of All Sunsets
Modern Rock / Electronic Groove Metal
To be released on 30th May 2014
Via Dr. Music Records
Hailing from Liechtenstein, Etta Zero produce and interesting mix of rock, metal, electro, and pop that sounds really gripping and, on a personal note, fits really nicely in to my music taste. They have a rock and metal tone, basically heavy sounding and riff based tunes that form the base of their sound. They take the melodies and harmonies from a more pop sounding style of writing. Finally, the “electro sound” is just some synth and keys that plays in the background of the production, overall the sound is quite an engaging experience. They’re first full length record The Last of All Sunsets is a great album and I’ve had a ball listening to it.
The album opens on a good intro called Something Big setting up the album brilliantly, it’s tense and shows off, albeit instrumentally, the sound that they clearly want to convey. The album goes through some riveting subjects such as failed relationships, the fight with their own self doubts and the emotions of pain, mourning and despair. Then they proceed to cover these subjects in an impressive, almost grandiose, style.
Etta Zero sound a lot like the more interesting version of the alt. rock/post grunge bands of America. In fact, some of the better songs on the album come with the tunes From The Ashes, All That I See and the bands self-titled song Etta Zero. I feel these songs capitalise on the bands rock and metal nature and since they are delivered with so much energy, they stand out beyond the rest of the record. There cover of the song Heartbeats, originally performed by Swedish band The Knife, is also a enthralling tune, taking the original source material and warping it into their own creation, as they used to be a synth pop cover band, they are well acquainted with the art of cover-songs.
The album doesn’t have many downfalls, but, there are some things that just bothered me. Let’s use the song Heaven is Closer as an example. I feel there could have been more control in the song-writing and production on the record, in this song the outro goes on for about 2 minutes and it just has this dragging feeling to it, it was one of the few track that I actually felt the need to skip. To be honest it’s decisions like this that stop me loving this album wholeheartedly. Also some of the songs are just downright forgettable and are clearly album filler, and unfortunately this involves the albums title track The Last of all Sunsets. These songs don’t really go anywhere and they’re not as involving as the rest of the album.
In summary, this is a pretty effort for a debut full length album. It’s got some really good songs that are easy to listen to. The pop melodies add to the easy listening element and the synth and keys electro sound is pretty drowned out by the metal and rock elements, although, they do have a good place when used properly, like in the intro track. Also I would recommend the bands first two EP’s: Tribute To Pop from 2002 and Downfall from 2007, there’s some really good songs on there too.
3/5
Mick Birchall
Valkyrian Music 