UMUR
"Following the Ancient Path" is the debut full-length studio album by Polish death metal act Eteritus. The album was released through Godz ov War Productions in June 2016. Eteritus was formed in 2010 and their first official release was the "Tales of Death" EP from 2014.
The music on "Following the Ancient Path" is early 90s influenced death metal. It´s especially the Swedish scene and the Sunlight sound which have been an influence on the music. So it´s safe to say that the music is pretty derivative and that you probably won´t find much that´ll surprise you here. So originality is not a key word when describing "Following the Ancient Path". Instead I´ll mention that Eteritus are competent musicians who deliver their music with conviction (the intelligible growling vocals are slightly one-dimensional, but they get the job done). The powerful professional sound production is also a great asset, but unfortunately the songwriting lacks hooks, which means that "Following the Ancient Path" is the type of album, which is fairly entertaining while it plays, but forgotten as soon as it´s over.
That´s maybe a bit harsh, but as mentioned the album also features redeeming qualities, and therefore it´s still a relatively good quality release. Hopefully the band will focus on creating more hook laden material on future releases, because when they incorporate some catchiness (semi-melodic leads) it works really well. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.