STONE LAKE's Myspace page describes their sound as a cross between METALLICA and ABBA. That certainly got my attention; I wanted to hear how a band could combine the two influences while still producing a Metal album. Obviously I am a big fan of most of METALLICA's work, but I genuinely hate ABBA. My mother, my sister, my ex-girlfriend...pretty much every female that I know loves ABBA so I've heard all of their hits more times than I care to remember.

There really was not much information to be found about this band and the only information that I could find was a poorly-written history on their website. Basically, STONE LAKE is a project that resulted from a couple of musicians who had played together off-and-on since the mid-80s. For those that are curious, based off of pictures of the band, bassist Lasse Johansson is not the same person as the lead guitarist of CANDLEMASS.

Anyhow, when I pictured what this band would sound like, based on their own description, I pictured the heavy riffs of METALLICA combined with catchy choruses of ABBA. The prospect of such a combination at least had the potential to yield some great music. However, the reality is that this is keyboard-heavy rock with very little METALLICA to be found.

The biggest problem is that the majority of the songs are built on really bad keyboard lines instead of solid guitar riffs. There are times were keyboards can do a fantastic job of serving as a foundation to a song (see ROSWELL SIX), but these keyboards should have stayed in the 80s where they belong. The vocals sound like they are coming from a children's cartoon character and often sound flat or off-key. Any sort of instrumental prowess is overpowered by the terrible music surrounding it.

Unlike some reviewers, I take no pleasure in writing negative reviews (unless it is for a band like KORN). However, when it becomes a sheer test of will for me to stick through this album even to the fourth song, it says something about the low quality of Shades of Eternity. Maybe if you're a big fan of ABBA your feelings will differ from mine, but I think my distaste stems more from the lousy songwriting than their musical direction, although the music is so punchless I wonder whether this even qualifies as Heavy Metal. Avoid.