THE FORGOTTEN GODDESS

I stumbled upon Echoes of Eternity while searching for bands through MySpace. Immediately as I heard it I liked it so I decided to get their debut album The Forgotten Goddess. The album has a mix between gothic, trash metal with a very good melodic side. While not being that much progressive at least in my opinion Echoes of Eternity start of at the right foot with this debut album. Some of the songs often contain some acoustic passages that bring a nice clean melodic sound to the music and a sort of relaxing moment from all the riffs. On the other hand Francine Boucher has one of the best female vocals I've ever heard yet they feel a little misplaced due to the sound and the rhythms of the other instruments. As for the drums on the other hand sound a bit repetitive with a sort of trash metal style.

The album has some sort of intro: Burning with Life which could clearly define what the music is all about except that it doesn't have any vocals. The first of the songs that caught my attention was Voices in A Dream, which has a soft acoustic, part which sounds so melodic with a very appealing solo. Other good songs like The Forgotten Goddess, The Kingdom Within which has a very interesting intro, Circles in Stone which is one of my favorites and Garden of the Gods follow the same formula as the first one I mentioned. In fact most of the songs sound a bit similar if you don't listen to the album to well you can't differ one from another. In the end the album closes with Adrift a sort of atmospheric symphonic melody followed with the incredible voice of Francine Boucher.

In the end we get a good prog goth metal album with trash-metal riffs that sounds similar to Trivium and Lacuna Coil. If you like both of these bands or at least one of them consider getting The Forgotten Goddess.

Good album. A 3.8 for me!

A not-so-prog album that is very entertaining and interesting.

ECHOES OF ETERNITY is not really a full progressive-metal band yet in "The Forgotten Goddess'. Their style is a mix of gothic metal (good atmospheric effect here), thrash metal (the riffing is so important and at times so 80's) and power-epic metal, with hints and touches of progressive-metal here and there, like the song structures which are not always regular or the interaction between the drums and the guitar riffs which transcend the usual one in most power metal. Also, there are acoustic passages that add variation to the music and many instrumental moments that, alltogether, create a music with a distinct sound, if not particularly outstanding.

The musicians are gifted. The main stars here is Patton, the guitar player, whose riffs are the blood that drives this album home. This is true riff-based metal and it's no wonder most of the riffs are very interesting and enjoyable. Some are just OK but in general Patton displays good technique. Carrsion on drums does a god job even though at times he lacks variation: his style is too dependent on Patton's guitars and that stops him for doing more with his hands and the parts of his kit. The bass playing is simple and effective. Francine Boucher, the singer, has a good voice that, in my view, doesn't match the power of Floor Jansen of AFTER FOREVER, for example, but in the lower moments it has real beauty. Boucher has a few diction problems, mostly in the track "Voices in a Dream" (the best in the album), where she can't pronounce the word "dream" which somehow ends up sounding like "jin". (?!)

The music is very enjoyable and effective. It's not incredibly progressive but i get the idea from the music that this new band is just starting to develop and grow and I see a lot of potential here. So my rating for this album is 3 stars out of 5. A good album that's still not essential. ECHOES OF ETERNITY, though, has all in them to become a great, essential prog-metal band. They're just beginning, and for a debut album, this is a success.

The Forgotten Goddess is the debut studio album from US ( Los Angeles) female led metal act Echoes of Eternity. The band was signed to Nuclear Blast records in 2006 after recording a promotional demo and after that recorded this debut album.

The music is melodic female led metal with thrashy riffing. The vocals from Canadian born vocalist Francine Boucher isn´t as virtuosic as some of the other vocalists in the genre ( Tarja of course comes to mind when speaking of the more technically skilled female singers in metal) and she actually reminds me a bit of Madonna when she doesn´t hit the higher notes which she doesn´t do very often. She is a good vocalist though, just with a different style than many of her contemporaries. The music is simple structured so don´t expect any surprises in the structure of the songs. They are all vers/chorus build and have a length between 4-6 minutes. What makes this album stand out a bit from the hordes of female led metal bands are the thrashy riffing. It´s not the best or most memorable riffs though and you shouldn´t seek this band out to hear killer riffs. The music is very melodic with lots of lead work from the guitars and Francine Boucher´s melodic vocal lines pushed to the forefront of the soundscape.

The musicianship is excellent. These are all good musicians and the interplay is great too.

The production is good, but I think Francine Boucher´s voice is too high in the mix and the chorus effect on her voice seems a bit too much at times.

Finally a female led metal band that uses some thrashy riffing instead of the more traditonal metal riffs that many of the bands in the genre play. And there are next to no keyboards on the album. Another plus in my book. The problem is that the expected effect is absent. I don´t get anything more out of listening to Echoes of Eternity than I do listening to almost any other band in the genre. I´ll stretch and give this album a 3 star rating because it´s such a professional product. It´s not to my personal liking though. The Forgotten Goddess is recommended to people who thinks that female led metal with thrashy riffing sounds interesting. Just don´t come complaining to me when you find out that those thrashy riffs are actually pretty generic and really not that powerful.

Echoes of Eternity is a young band formed in Los Angeles few years ago. They release so far two album, this one is the first from 2007 named The forgotten goddess. Well, this is not progressive metal at all, is more like metal with female singer. The riffs, the drumming, all remind me of a metal band, they don't have in common nothing with a progressive metal genre. All the pieces are under 5 min, that showns that the pieces are not very well developed, not complex enough to be progressive metal, but if you take the album as it is as metal is quite enjoyble. As I said the pieces are short , guitar oriented with a lots riffing but combined with the good voice and very powerfull of Francine Boucher this first album is a god one but don't expect to something realy excellent. I've heared this album couple of times and was enough for me, even the variety is missing here. The album has power and balls, is very up tempo all the time, with some great chops on drums but the complexity is not present here, 3 riffs over two refrains and a chorus and is over a piece of 4 min. In the end a good album, but far from being something special, I wish it were more structurated and more varied in manner of composing. Anyway I will give 3 stars, nothing progressive here, but pleasent most of the time.