ETERNAL IDOL is an Italian Symphonic Metal band with Progressive highlights formed in 2016. "Renaissance" is their second full-length album. Released November 6, 2020 through Frontiers Records, this is a record of epic proportions, covering a lot of ground on just 10 songs. Clocking in at a little over 52 minutes, you immediately want a couple of bonus tracks to fill the hour out. Not that the record leaves you hanging, you just want more.

The album begins with "Into The Darkness". With a number of musical phrasings, the band uses the combination of male and female vocals to signal the shifts with a different feeling for the combined vocal times. The complexity immediately draws the listener in and holds their attention. These tempo shifts really give a good display of the progressive metal overtones. This is aided by both vocalists having pretty incredible ranges.

The second track, "Black Star" provides more of this, but with a slightly different feel. Less prog, more power. Fabio goes into the raspy range a little more and really roughs up his tones while Claudia continues to soar to almost operatic heights effortlessly. This song gives a really nice guitar solo and some serious keyboard wizardry, layering the sounds for an impressive wall of sound.

Jumping down to track five, we have "Away From Heaven", a melancholy ballad with just some orchestration and a piano for most of the song. There are some low-end bass notes added for texture and tone in some areas. This really enhances the overall the effect of the song, giving it a bit of a darker feel. What's impressive about this song is the masterful build with both music and vocals with well layered vocals and music. This is a very complex ballad that engages the listener and makes them focus on all the different sounds offered up throughout.

But they are not done changing things up. "The Edge" starts with a more Industrial/Techno feel to the opening keyboard phrase. The song moves into a more Power Metal sound after the intro, but still maintains a more industrial, less Symphonic Metal sound throughout. Again, this is another facet of a band that can change things up and not lose any power.

Wrapping up the record is the nine plus minute epic title track, "Renaissance". Starting with a single guitar and a piano, the song builds slowly, adding bass, then bringing in the drums. Once the full ensemble makes their way in, the song takes off and continues to build until the rapid-fire ending, trading off guitar and keyboard solos and fills, ever progressing to the finale. This album ends like a television show wraps their season, with a cliffhanger that makes you want more.

The main thing ETERNAL IDOL does right is pretty much everything. There are nice, complex rhythms, mixtures of prog, power and symphonic metal, the requisite power ballad and the epic wrap up that delivers all the promises hinted at earlier on the record. Renaissance is one of those rare records that builds throughout and just gets better as it goes along. I highly recommend listening to this on loop for at least a week just to get a good feel for everything it has to offer.