Eldritch – Innervoid

Despite their rather typical approach to classic heavy metal with symphonic and progressive elements, Eldritch, always had the edge to them, which made them stand out from the endless line of similar bands. Many of those emerged during the course of last decade which was marked by the classic metal’s revival.

Unlike many of the newer bands, Eldritch has been around for more than three decades and in the course of their career the band has experienced several lineup changes. However, the trio of vocalist Terence Holler, guitarist Eugene Simone and keyboardist Oleg Smirnoff were there from the start. The release of new album marks their first release without Holler and changing a vocalist after 12 albums is tricky for any band. It’s especially delicate if the vocalist in question was one of significant aspects, which made this band unique. Aside from being a good singer, the tone quality of Holler voice and his sense for melody made this band stand out from the endless line of similar bands.

That being said, let’s not forget that there has also always been a quality and fair dose of unusual edge to Eldritch‘s music as well. And the impact of it shouldn’t be neglected.

So here we are at the end of 2023 with band’s first album to feature new singer Alex Jarusso.

Innervoid is the follow-up to Eos, which was easily their weakest albums in in past 15 years or so. But Eos was in no way a weak album. It did however lack the focus and flow of many of its predecessors.

Innervoid continues down the similar path, meaning that progressive and symphonic elements play a significant role, though not to as big degree as they did on Eos. What band did improve is songwriting, which is far more focused and with lyrical and general flow on level we know from likes of Cracksleep and Underlining Issues.

Sonically the band also continues where the previous album left off, meaning that overall sound and production are dense, with massive and massively compressed drums at the center. Keyboards still play a big role, and the album is packed with slick yet emotionally changed guitar solos.

And then there are vocals. Jarusso does a very good job and there is energy and hunger to his performance, which adds to the albums imposing energy and intensity level. Musically the band is on familiar grounds, but there is also plenty of diversity within the band’s established palette.

His voice, however, doesn’t possess that unique quality which characterized Holler’s vocals and was big part of band’s identity.

Still Innervoid is a rather strong album and strong debut for this, new constellation of band. Some of the uniqueness has vanished with Holler’s exit, bit on the other hand the band comes across as more focused, and songwriting improved noticeably comparing to the predecessor. So, in general this album is a step in a right direction and an very important step at that.

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