One band that we’ve kept a close eye on over the last few years is that of Eternal Storm. We heard their first demo back in the early days of the site, and have been chomping at the bit to hear some more material, outside that of a single or two. Well, earlier this year, we got our wish in the form of Come the Tide. A sweeping melodic death metal release that checks off all of the boxes that you’d hope for in the genre, but presents it with such passion and force that you can’t help but be impressed by it all, from beginning to end, especially with some of the elegant melodies that consistently flourish in the tracks. We were able to fire off some questions to the band’s guitar duo of Daniel Maganto and Jaime Torres, who filled us in on the gap between the EP and now, how they have evolved, and what they particularly enjoy about the genre.
Dead Rhetoric: It’s been quite some time since you released From the Ashes, and the single that was on the Elemental Nightmares compilation. What has Eternal Storm been up to in the last few years?
Jaime: Hi there! Thanks for the interview first of all! I moved to Edinburgh at the end of 2014, and a few months later we parted ways with our previous drummer Lucho. Back then though there was already a good bit of the album already written, at least on its initial form, but then we had to look for a drummer and thankfully we found Mateo which was a breath of fresh air for us. Then the album was actually recorded in January 2017, but then we needed some extra time for the mixing, mastering, artwork, finding a label and then fitting in their schedule release so it resulted in the album coming out two years and a few months after its recording, but hey, here we are and quite happy about it finally being out, haha.
Daniel: Hey, Kyle! Thanks for your time! Besides all these things which Jaime mentioned, we were rather busy on the live front, we did a tour across Spain and Portugal with Wolfheart and also supported other bands like Septicflesh, Moonspell, Nightrage, Ash Borer, Blood Red Throne or Stormlord. We had some stuff going on with other bands we are/were involved with (Teething, Liquid Graveyard, Mourning Sun, Under Vultures, Heid etc) and, of course, life happened and our studies and jobs made the release of the album happen a bit later than what we pretended.
Dead Rhetoric: With that much time between releases, how do you feel that you’ve evolved as musicians during that time span?
Jaime: Well, in terms of technical skill I think we are as sloppy as ever, hahaha (except for Mateo, respect for the boy), but at least I think we definitely expanded our songwriting skills during these years, partly because of our own growing as listeners of many types of music.
Daniel: I think that the most important thing is that we have found our own voice by expanding the most aggressive aspects from our music, but also the atmospheric spectrum. “From the Ashes” was pretty much a standard melodic death metal release, whereas I think that “Come the Tide” feels like a much more personal and solid album.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you feel was most important in crafting the songs of Come the Tide?
Jaime: I would say having coherent song structures and a cohesive sound for the whole album was one of our main goals. We didn’t want to just write a bunch of songs that had nothing in common with each other, and we definitely spent a lot of time adjusting the structure of each song to ensure the dynamics would work.
Daniel: We put a lot of effort in the way the whole album flows, we wanted each transition to feel as natural as possible and to make these songs memorable.
Dead Rhetoric: Given that the album has been released, how do you feel the feedback has been to it so far?
Daniel: It’s really rewarding to read such positive feedback from many of our favourite webzines after such a long and, at times, frustrating wait. Even though the most important thing for us is to make music the four of us are proud of, knowing that many people all over the world and some of our favourite media appreciate what we are doing is wonderful. For example, we were chosen as the record of the month by Angry Metal Guy, and you can’t imagine how demanding they are there! I’ve seen too many bands I like getting rough reviews there, so we were like “oh, so you’re not angry with us?”, hahaha.
Jaime: We couldn’t be happier with the feedback so far. We were quite happy with what we had recorded, but we were not expecting so many nice words from people and webzines, so yeah, it’s feeling really good.
Dead Rhetoric: Is there anything you’d like to do differently or try to advance in your next material?
Jaime: Yes, we are always trying to explore new paths in our music. As many reviews have pointed out we do have a strong atmospheric side and that is something we are expanding on right now in the new stuff we are working on. Similarly we are also coming up with some heavier parts for those new tracks too, so we are quite keen on expanding our sound on both sides of the spectrum.
Daniel: I think we just want to expand both sides of our sound, including more vocal styles (more types of screams, clean vocals, maybe some female vocals etc) plus trying to have the bass a bit more present in our music, add some percussion, small sections with electronica, more acoustic guitars, using a string quartet…there are so many things we would like to experiment with, but we also want some of it to be heavier than our previous output. Of course, we want to make sure our most recognizable elements are still present and that every new element we include enriches our sound and it’s not added just for sheer pretentiousness. Other than that, I would personally like to get a more organic sound for the drums and a bit less “metal” tone for the guitars, we are using different gear live now and will probably try new combinations on our next record.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you feel is tricky about playing melodic death metal at this point, and finding a sound that is your own?
Daniel: Many bands try too hard to sound like the big names in the genre, and I understand most of us try to do that during the early stages of forming a band, but once you’ve been around for a while I don’t see the point in trying to mimic what, let’s say, Insomnium or At The Gates do. We decided to expand both sides of the genre and be a bit more aggressive and also atmospheric than the bands we love. For us it gets a bit boring to play double picking riffs with a d-beat all the time, so we had to find our own voice.
Jaime: Yeah, exactly that, I think it is quite easy to be comfy and stay within the boundaries already set by the bigger bands.
Dead Rhetoric: Have you taken any tips from other bands in terms of how you approach songwriting or touring?
Jaime: In terms of songwriting, not consciously at least, although I guess even by reading an interview with musicians that you admire you somehow absorb some of the methods they mention they use when they write songs, so we probably are ripping off many bands we adore, but hey, it’s not in purpose, haha.
Daniel: I mean, sometimes we might hear a passage that might inspire us to try something specific in our own music, but we always try to give it our own voice. When we are working on new music I sometimes put the name of a band it reminds me of, like “the Leprous break”, “the Omnium Gatherum tremolo” or “the Vader riff”, but it’s just because I think it makes it easier to everybody to recognize the section and work on the section.
Dead Rhetoric: What would you like to see Eternal Storm achieve in the future?
Jaime: Just keep making good records while we keep experimenting with our sound.
Daniel: Continue writing music we are proud of and do a bunch of tours and festivals every year, no big expectations other than enjoying the ride, you know 😉
Dead Rhetoric: What do you think it will take to bring Eternal Storm to the next level?
Jaime: I don’t know, to me I’m happy as long as we keep making music which is relevant to us and keep pushing ourselves towards new paths.
Daniel: Increasing our live activity and releasing music more often would help for sure, but we just want to have a good time while we play music we enjoy. Of course we could work a bit harder and we are certainly trying to be a bit more focused now, with the new album and having some extra pressure on us 🙂
Dead Rhetoric: What has been something that has been a challenge, and something that has been a pleasure in making music with Eternal Storm?
Jaime: Well, since I live in Scotland and the rest of the guys live in Spain, that distance is definitely the biggest challenge, not being able to play together as much as we wished, however that makes it the more special when we have the chance to meet up, whether it is for a gig, a small tour, rehearsing or recording.
Daniel: Having the main writer based in a different country plus some of us not having much free time from our day jobs make things a bit more difficult, but luckily we get along great and we have a few talented friends helping us whenever one of us can’t make it to an important gig. The long wait between recording the album and releasing it was also a difficult and rather exhaustive process, but luckily that’s over and we are finally enjoying the sweet moments of being in a band.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you enjoy about the melodic death metal genre?
Jaime: I guess it is the combination of melody and heaviness that gives it an extra intensity and a stronger emotional punch.
Daniel: I enjoy the epicness and memorability of many bands of the genre. Contrasting heavy and crushing moments with catchy yet melancholic melodies.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you have in store for Eternal Storm for the remainder of 2019?
Jaime: We will try to play as much as possible, we’ve got a few shows booked in Spain and we’ll also be doing a small European tour next October for seven days together with our friends in Totengott. Apart from that we’re focusing on the next record which is quite advanced by now and we’re planning to record next January. Hopefully this time there won’t be a five years gap in between releases haha.
Anyway, thank you very much guys for giving us the chance to do this interview with you! Best of luck, cheers!
Daniel: We are doing a short European run with Totengott this month playing a few shows in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, which are going to be our firsts shows outside Spain and Portugal. Then we will play a few more gigs in Spain and finish what’s left of what will be our sophomore album and, while we wait for the release of it, we will probably do another tour and play some festivals. Thanks again for this interview and continuous support over the years, I really mean it when I say Dead Rhetoric is one of my favourite websites and I’ve discovered a lot of amazing bands like Woccon or Shores of Null thanks to David and you, Kyle. Best wishes to you and all your riders and check us out on:
Eternal Storm official website
Eternal Storm on Facebook
and feel free to share what you had for breakfast and the last music you bought in our Instagram account (eternalstormofficial). ¡Salud!