Harvester of Souls: The Seperation of Wheat from Chaff

Band: Harvester of Souls
Album: The Seperation of Wheat from Chaff
Genre: Black Metal (with doom influences)
Rating: 7/10
Back in 2006, just around the time Eternal Mystery was getting started, Broc Toney started a small gothic Black Metal project known as "Harvester of Souls". He released a demo titled "Demo 2006". To be blunt, it wasn't very good...at all. The sound quality was terrible and the vocals weren't very good. It did have good instrumentation. (Side note, if you ever find a copy of this demo, hold on to it. they are extremely rare, I was very fortunate to run across one). On to the album. This is definitely not your run-of-the-mill black metal. This is also not your run of the mill doom metal either. Harvester of souls took on a very interesting approach. What you end up with is a strange fusion. The guitars and vocals pertain very much to black metal. The speed and progression of the songs have a very great doom influence. What is strange about this album are the drums. Drum work isn't always too important in black metal. What you have here, however, is a usage of some strange, super fast drumming,  the same kind broc used in almost ever Eternal Mystery album. But don't let this drumming turn you away. The Seperation of Wheat from Chaff is a great album. Definitely buy this one if you can find a physical copy.

Eternal Mystery: Brusied for Our Transgressions

Band: Eternal Mystery
Album: Bruised for Our Transgressions
Genre: Grindcore
Rating 8/10
This was the pinnacle of eternal mystery's "gurgle vocals" albums. This was also eternal mystery's last album featuring it's original vocalist and bassist. But enough about the history. Let's talk about the music. Broc Toney has always been an excellent guitarist here, and this album was no exception. The sound quality is much much cleaner in this album, in comparison to their first three. And the strange brutality rears is head from the first track to the last. The lyrics are much like they were for C.A.H and B.A.P.H. No real improvements were made there. One of the greatest things about this album was the length. Eternal Mystery really pushed it here. 31 tracks including another Vomitorial Corpulence cover. One special note I would like to make is that this is the LAST ExMx album to feature the higher pitched Gollumn type voices. Any fan of Eternal Mystery's old stuff should DEFINITELY check this one out.

Eternal Mystery: Behold, a Pale Horse

Band : Eternal Mystery
Album: Behold, a Pale Horse
Rating: 7/10
Genre: Grindcore
This is Eternal Mystery's second album as a grindcore band, and there are definite improvements from their first. First off, the microphone quality improved (with the exception of one or two songs). Just in case you didn't know, in their earlier days, Eternal Mystery used a combination of low gruggles and higher-pitched yells (similar to Gollum from Lord of the Rings). The thing in this album that really takes the cake is the instrumentation. Broc Toney has always been a great guitarist and drum programmer for any musical project, and this album is no exception. This album is no longer available from any distro to my knowledge (even Broc himself no longer has a copy). If you do, happen to find one though, do yourself a favor and buy it, especially if you're an Eternal Mystery fan.

Eternal Mystery/The Right Wing Conspiracy Split

Band :
      Eternal Mystery
      The Right Wing Conspiracy
Album: Right Wing Conspiracy Split With Eternal Mystery
Genre: Industrial Grindcore/Deathgrind
Rating: 8/10
This is a pretty solid release. The first 10 tracks are done by The Right Wing Conspiracy. RxWxCx is an industrial grindcore with some punk influences. The vocals are very harsh, but tolerable. The drumming is programmed and inhumanly fast, but at the same time enjoyable. The guitar work is the real story here though. Guitar work is where a lot of grindcore bands falter, but this band does it right. The last 7 tracks are done by Eternal Mystery. Eternal Mystery has made a few alterations to their sound over the years. This is actually the first album with their last "new" vocalist.  You'll be greeted with some fairly comprehensible vocals, both high range and low range (but no pig squeals and no DEEP gutturals). Try your best to pick this little one up from Divine Metal Distro or Download it From iTunes. You won't be disappointed. NOTE: Not for metalcore fans. There are absolutely NO breakdowns (which is how grindcore was intended to be).

Eternal Mystery: Flesh Separation

Band: Eternal Mystery

Album: Flesh Separation

Genre: Deathgrind

Rating: 10/10

     There were a lot of bands in the "Myspace" days of christian metal. Some were fantastic, and released some very solid material. Some were awful. Some produced numerous albums, and many just released one EP, and called it quits. And one or two produced some near-genre-defining masterpieces that should never be forgotten. I am daring to say that Eternal Mystery's Flesh Separation is one of those albums.
     Flesh Separation was the last album released by the 1-3 piece Christian Death/Grind band Eternal Mystery. And boy, what an album to go out with. By this point, the band had 3 members (for the first time in years), and each showed quite a bit of skill. Broc Toney, the only member of the band who stuck around from sweet beginning to quiet end, did guitars and drum programming. Josh Cook, who had been with the band since their Split with the Right Wing Conspiracy, did vocals. Shane Carter (who was only 15 at the time!) played bass.
     Every track in this album has something distinguishable in it. The opening, track, Intro, starts out with some instrumentals, and ends with a short quote from the movie 300, gracefully cross-fading into the first vocal track, Bile of the Dictator. Josh's vocal skills really shine in this track. He took the same mid-high and mid-low skills used in Their Split with Right Wing Conspiracy, and really expounded upon it. Broc's guitar work is exactly what you'd expect. Down-tuned and very solid. And his drum work pretty well follows suit. Expect to hear plenty of sweet cymbal work, and insane double bass pedal-ing. Shane's bass work is quite impressive, especially for someone who was only 15 at the time. Pay extra attention to the beginning of "A Walking Tomb", which has several moments with just bass and a couple of cymbal crashes.
     Two particular tracks to mention are Flesh Separation and Tongues of Scorn. Flesh Separation could easily be considered the "excited" track from the album. You'll just have to listen to it to understand. The big note here is the fact that Felipe Diez (who has appeared in virtually ever Broc Toney Project) has some guest vocals in this track. Tongues of Scorns starts out with some nice, general death/grind. But after about 2 minutes, it goes silent...yet, the track isn't over yet. Skip ahead to 5:40. You're then greeted with a very mellow/solemn instrumental sequence. It's simply amazing. Just give it a listen.
     The last thing I want to note is more for the audiophiles, so feel free to skip ahead if you want the wrap-up. The stereo spacing in this album is great, especially for a home project. Some parts of the album tend to sit in the monophonic range. But some parts of some tracks, especially the beginnings, do really well at bouncing from ear to ear, or just separating instruments in a very enjoyable way. Make sure your favourite pair of studio phones, and give this one a listen in a lossless codec.
     More could be said about this album, but I won't say it. Go give it a listen. You will most likely be finding a digital copy, since this album is long out of print. If you do find a cd copy, hold on to it and cherish it deeply. It's simply a fantastic album.