I've been made to listen to a lost of Symphonic Metal since I started writing for Metal Temple, and honestly what I've heard hasn't exactly made me warm up to the genre any more than before. I'll say it again: I have no issues with the singers or musicians; they all perform their tasks admirably. That being said, it really is the same thing over and over again. These bands are very interchangeable sound-wise. I'm sorry, but that's the truth. The only exception that I've found so far is LEAVES' EYES, who I absolutely love. But for the most part, these groups just don't thrill me. It's too much with the synth, choir, and silly storylines. So without further ado, let's get into "Ethereal" from Greek band FALLEN ARISE.

The first problem I have is with the length of most of these songs. If you're going to keep my attention for six, seven minutes or more, your name had better be RUSH, IRON MAIDEN, or DREAM THEATER, and even then you'd better not be playing the same riff over and over and over. This is the case for much of this record. But it's not all bad. The ones that caught my attention were "Nightouched" and "Under the Bliss of the Sun" right away for the simple reason that they rocked harder than the others. "Eternal Sins" was another winner, due to the intense atmosphere and mood. Plus it has simply the coolest riff on the album.

Unfortunately there wasn't much else to get excited about for me. The sheer repetition of the longer songs was almost enough to put me off of FALLEN ARISE completely, but the good songs were more than good enough to hold my interest. Pity there weren't more of them to be found on an album that's almost an hour long. The other songs range from just okay to completely forgettable and were gone from memory as soon as they finished. I'd say I liked about half of "Ethereal", but I highly doubt I'll reach for this one again anytime soon.