Eulogium - A Light in the Darkness

Eulogium is a black metal band made up of one man – Armando Lopez. This is actually a promo version of the CD as Lopez is currently saving up to have the album pressed. So I have the fancy photocopied inserts and CD-R to review here. The album starts off with some howling wolves…or are they dogs? Well, some dogs eventually start barking in the background as a soft guitar is played that reminds me of Sentenced. Thankfully, the barking and howling is over somewhat soon and the real music begins. For the most part, this disc is just very raw, grim black metal. The vocals are solid and have a very extreme and angry feel to them. Lopez also throws in a few death vocals on occasion. The guitars are nice and aggressive throughout, however, my biggest gripe is the drumming. At times it seems like it just has no direction. At other times, the guitars are played at a frantic pace but the drumming seems to be dangerously close to lagging behind and instead of this being furiously fast black metal, it turns out to being more mid-paced. There is some blasting here and there but it just doesn’t keep up the pace for very long. Track 5, “Final Rest” starts off with a haunting acoustic guitar intro, that turns into two acoustics….one being softly picked while the other is softly strummed with whispering in the background that eventually turns to a bell tolling to finish out the song. Lopez also uses an acoustic intro on the song “Misfortune” that works well.

Production on the album is quite rough, but not to where it's not listenable. The biggest issue is again the drums, which sometimes sound like he is banging on big Tupperware containers. Lyrically, the album deals with death and the moments after death.  The person in the songs seems to deeply regret the choices they made in life and in especially not following "the Book in which the prophets pray."

Despite Eulogium being in need of some adjustments, there seems to be enough redeeming qualities about Lopez’ work that makes me interested in what he does in the future. He definitely needs to work on some better production and refine his drumming and that will make a world of difference right from the start. If memory serves me correctly, I believe Lopez was selling copies of this disc for about $2 or $3 apiece as he tries to get money to press the CD’s. If you are interested in getting a copy, you can e-mail him here: extol_777@hotmail.com

Rating: 40/100

Review By: Matt Morrow

Label: Independent

Total Songs: 5

Total Time: 24:48

Tracklisting: 1. Unrest Come Night Time, 2. Misfortune, 3. El Desierto, 4. Frigid Emptiness, 5. Final Rest.

Best Songs: Tracks 1 and 4.

Band Lineup: Armando Lopez - Guitars/Percussion/Vocals/Keyboards.

Band Website: ?