Euphorbia - Eternal Lie

Today I'm looking at a Brazilian dark electro duo Euphorbia who formed themselves in 2005. While I have never heard this name before they kindly introduced themselves in an E-Mail and are associates of another project I have personally reviewed and enjoyed in the past Nahtaivel. Apparently they have frequently partnered and collaborated with Nahtaivel; it's a smart move considering he's a damned good producer. 

I was brought to attention their newest album Eternal Lie. What I find interesting about the album is that it mainly consists of tracks that have been played live for quite a while which have been overhauled and re-recorded specifically for this album. From what I've seen, most bands record and then play; these guys are doing it opposite. As a result we have twelve tracks with two of those being remixes from Nahtaivel and Messiah. 

The easiest and simplest way to describe this album is by saying it's the standard dark electro formula done well. While they don't really have an identity all of their own and can be blended in with a numerous amount of dark electro bands, they have a good four on the floor sound to them. The album does slowly build up, however, with 'Outside Continuum', 'Arcturus', and 'Miasma' providing good electronic segments. 'Miasma' specifically has a decent middle eastern ring to it, like something out of Ancient Egypt. 

From 'Dual' to 'We Fall', however, prepare for a bunch of dance floor songs built for cybergoths and the like. The final original song on the album 'Under the Spell' puts out some pretty good beats and changes up the vocals. It also has some fairly good synth work covering it's ground. 

My major complaint for the album lies within Euphorbia's vocals. Yes, I understand your genre is dark electro and that you want to fit in with the rest of the group who has heavy distortion on their vocals, but try something - anything - different. There are floods and floods of bands with distortion withering away on their vocals and it's not unique or fun anymore; it's dry and dull. 

The Nahtaivel remix does help breathe life into the album with focus on extra percussion based instruments. It gives an extra oomph to the album which was lacking beforehand. This remix would have worked perfectly on its own as an instrumental. I wasn't a huge fan of Messiah's remix of 'Miasma' as it sounded like a flat version of the original with the bass taken out of it. It didn't really innovate anything. 

Dark electro fiends will eat this album up plenty, but anyone outside of the genre will not. It's decent, but there's more potential here then what Euphorbia is currently showing. 
Aug 03 2016