I sometimes (often, even) complain about bands trying to sell their music as something it is not. A good example of this is melodeath, which very often turns out to be the oft-maligned metalcore – giving the child a new name is meant to get around the stigma the genre has. Similarly, bands often want to seem more progressive than they are for a few different reasons. Maybe it’s the cred that comes with playing a big-brain genre like prog or it is that, yet again, the actual genre is to be obscured. Many progressive metal albums turn out to be nu metal, groove metal or some similarly broish concoction nowadays and it is ironic that the musicians brain immediately goes to the genre that is often hated on for being too high brow.
In the case of Ethereal Void, I am unsure if it is a conscious attempt at hiding the genre at all. Gods of a Dead World consists of Gojira-esque groove metal that intermingles with some death metal allusions and synth or guitar lead work that never really integrates into the music quite like it should. The comparison to Gojira in particular makes me think another modern phenomenon is at play here: The word prog has lost all meaning and as soon as something makes an attempt to seem more sophisticated than it is, it can be called prog just as well. Strangely, I find this even more pretentious than endless noodling and tracks with double digit lengths – in the purest sense of the word, as in pretending to be something you are not. This is not the Ethereal Void‘s fault, of course. The issue remains that a genre descriptor primes a listener for what to expect, and I did not get what I expected to get. Unfortunately, I don’t think Ethereal Void quite stands on their own merit, either. This type of “progressive” groove metal is very narrow in execution and the fact that everything the band does to make it more unique doesn’t meld with it at all is a testament to that. And while I can see some Gojira fans liking this, I don’t see why they’d pick it over the French original.
