The Eternal Soul

Given the wealth of medieval tales and ancient legends lectured upon throughout their long-festering debut album, The Eternal Soul, perhaps it's fitting that Martiria's middle-aged membership would look more like college professors than rock musicians. So, too, one presumes, might their target audience, since the band's music contains a similarly broad but inherently quaint cross-section of ‘70s and ‘80s aesthetic devices — all of them conveniently but uncomfortably stuffed under the forgiving umbrella of progressive metal. Compounded with the affinity for classical and folk traditions displayed by Martiria's chief creative orchestrator, Andy "Menario" Menarini, it's no surprise to realize that representative album tracks like "The Ancient Lord" and "The Most Part of the Men" often recall the "feel" of early Rainbow (if any one source can be pinpointed) — but unfortunately sounding rather more like Blackmore's Night, at times. If there's any, unfailingly modern musical signature to be found on this album, it's arguably the power metal flourishes breathing some life into hard-charging anthems like the aforementioned "Ancient Lord," "Arthur" (about, you guessed it, Avalon's finest) and (don't laugh) "Fairies." And it may be the fault of the album's spotty production (resulting in some very poorly executed arrangements, and generally lifeless sonics overall), but singer Rick Anderson's falsettos sound distinctly limited in power, and his pitching rather suspect on epic ballads "Babylon Fire," "The Soldier and the Sky," and the otherwise quite beautiful "Winter" (featuring an opening acoustic guitar figure reminiscent of Saxon's "Crusader"). The latter, incidentally, eventually crumbles into unconvincing pomp, which is brought to the height of preposterousness by manly operatic voices, also found, in the shape of Legionnaires, on the leaden-paced "Romans and Celts" — wow! Even so, and despite all of these drawbacks, it's hard to fault Martiria for their sheer compositional ambition and often successful fulfillment thereof. Regardless of the numerous issues of execution, there's something to be said about their obstinate guts in trailblazing their own path with The Eternal Soul.