I’ve wrestled with this intro more than I typically do. There’s a joke in here somewhere about how the title, The Violence of Time could only be charitably described as “unfortunate.” I’ve had flashbacks to mandatory HR meetings, to that brief time I worked for a house painting company, and that one day a relative wanted to give me a long and detailed story about health issues involving sores on her bum. But no amount of witticisms and anecdotes can properly convey the fact that this album, for its strengths (such as they are), is boring. Ghastly, appallingly boring. Eternal Drak have descended from Canada with their fourth album, a blueprint of all the ways blackened thrash ought not to be executed.
So what’s the good news? He used a blade Eternal Drak at least have some peak production, with the drumming from Ben1 arriving with some amphitheater-style thunk and reverb. As a whole, The Violence of Time sounds mixed with old school heavy metal ethos and has echoes of classic rock in the spaciousness of sound. The lush DR confirms this, with the uncredited bass lines pulsing away under dueling guitars. Everything is open, letting the occasional air-guitar-inducing leads like in “The Unborn Paths Rot” cut through the mix with a semblance of energy before collapsing into straight-ahead chugs. The few bits of double bass and blast beats in moments like “Across the Watching Veils” never drown out the licks and riffs, while vocalist Drakar howls with a screech that echoes over the proceedings. The production is of genuine quality, and it’s a good template for this style.
The bad news is The Violence of Time is amongst the most drab, listless, flaccid releases I’ve ever heard. It’s astounding how Eternal Drak have managed to take a genre known for its vim and vigor and cranked out an album devoid of true highlights, energy, or memorability. The few leads sound almost cliched in their approach, like the worlds safest imitation of what good thrash shredding is supposed to sound like, and are gone as quickly as they start. The vast majority of the songs operate in mid-gear, with the occasional spurts of speed collapsing back into monotonous mid-paced chugging. “The Cosmos Rejects You” really tries to sell its main chorus as a violent, mountain-crushing moment with Ben blasting his heart out, but repeatedly returns to verses which try to be atmospheric but only serve to be anticlimactic. “No Direction Total War” falters as an album climax with a short chorus repeated to the point of obnoxiousness, and opening track “We Force It to Speak” aspires to be a dramatic curtain-raising kickoff, but its monotonous repetition and lethargic lead style only serve to be an accurate warning to the listener for what lies within.
Experiments, adventurousness, and memorable moments are so minuscule as to be almost nonexistent. The biggest curveball comes by way of “The Blasphemy of Time” with a blast-beat suddenly introducing uncredited lady vocals for a chorus. She sounds swell, but her sudden arrival is jarring, used for isolated lines rather than anything approaching texture or layering. Eternal Drak try their own hand at cleans with “Breathing Once Again”, a completely unnecessary power ballad in the middle of an already sluggish album, with Drakar doing his best Godsmack impression without the hefty chords to back him up. In point of fact, these two flirtations with clean vocals are the only memorable element of The Violence of Time, for better and worse. I’ve rarely heard an album that objectively has high BPM and still manages to sound this slow. The leads are boring. The riffs are boring. The incessant abuse of chugging is boring. The constant waltz time signatures over what should be atmospheric and menacing scales are boring. This album isn’t blackened as much as dimmed, and doesn’t thrash as much as wriggle, and given the potency of the genre, that’s a real shame.
Eternal Drak have dropped the safest album I’ve heard all year, carefully engineered to be as inoffensive and bland as possible. Amnesia-inducing, insomnia-conquering, and performed with the conviction that surely everything played is friggin’ awesome, The Violence of Time is as memorable as your college statistics class, as delightful as your grocery store having a sale on lint brushes, and as intense as toddlers pillowfighting. It’s genuinely disappointing, as the production really is fantastic, and I’d kill to hear some actually worthwhile songs presented in this soundscape. I’d say I look forward to forgetting this album, but it does an excellent job erasing itself from your memory on its own as soon as each playthrough concludes. For audiophiles and genre diehards only; I’m off to go find another album which will be less violent with my time.
Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: FirstWave Studio
Website: Album Bandcamp2
Releases Worldwide: July 17th, 2026
The post Eternal Drak – The Violence of Time Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.
