Review: “Eternal Lords” by Breakdowns At Tiffany’s

Following the brilliance of their sophomore album “Gravity” is no mean feat so German Metalcore act Breakdowns At Tiffany’s put back the release date for their third studio record until they were one hundred and ten percent happy with it. The result has meant staggered singles with the music video for the title track appearing an epic seven months before the album release. The quintet who comprise Marius Wedler (Vocals), Florian Franzen (Guitars), Pascal Gruhlke (Bass), Daniel Heuken (Drums) and Sebastian Dirckles (Guitars) recorded, mixed and mastered the album at Mega Blaster Recordings.

An epic introduction to the record comes in the way of “Thrones” which combines soaring synths with programming to build up to the DJent infused punch in the gut that is “Collapse“. The synth work is used in the background, buried by the weight of the guitar tones during the verse and bleeding out during the chorus. Wedler makes no play for clean vocals, instead switching between the Metalcore and Deathcore unclean moments with the band relying on the instrumentation to create some melody. The thunderous “Animals” brings high rate extinction grooves and trampoline park bounce with some neat guitar tapping sections adding some technical charm. Dropping off for a melodic guitar part before breaking back into a juggernaut breakdown section is just brutally good. After a sample about stalking, “Tremors” kicks in with some dark atmospherics and bludgeoning rhythms with synths that play an important part in creating the sound dynamic while not taking over the show. “Cold Sweat” then serves as a pallette cleansing moment of clarity, breaking up the skull crushing riffs.

Two Thousand Fears” brings with it some Technical Metalcore riffs with Reflections esq moments with Wedler producing some of is darkest lyrics and lowest vocal tones, some of the elongated roars are jaw dropping. Again, relying on the lead guitar work to provide some melodic moments, it piles into “Messengers” like a tow truck driven by a drunk smashing into the car it’s supposed to be rescuing. Bright tapping lead sections and savage vocals light up the blue touch paper on this one with the high octane riff attack and sheer quality of each musicals performance shining through. Introducing some Death Metal elements with the brual “Into The Abyss” that has some rapid fire staccato riffs that bring Heaven Shall Burn influences to the table along with a timely “Bleigh!” makes for a stand out track. The programmed section is a nice touch and mades the closing passage hit harder on the turn around. The album title track “Eternal Lords” has that artillery bombardment percussion while Wedler shows off a bit more range with a couple of other voices stepping away from his usual throat attack.

The third ambient instrumental break comes in the form of “8643” and in some ways harks back to what Bring Me The Horizon used to do on their earlier albums. As with each of these pieces that clock in around the 70 second mark, they don’t feel cut from another track or like they should be some how shoehorned into one of the full tracks, instead standing happily alone and adding to the flow and dynamic of the album as a whole. Arguably the most Metalcore of the tracks on the album “Domestic Horrors” has breakdowns piled on breakdowns like a junkyard stack of cars and some brutal drops as it flies through like a tornado tearing the roofs off the neighborhood as it goes. Sinister, menacing DJent infused Deathcore tones make for the darker “A Serpent’s Tongue“, which would be a blunt force trauma that could see you hospitalised if it wasn’t for the melodic lead parts that overlay the pounding rhythms with closer “Unraveled” building on that and adding in some Death Metal elements and blast beats from Heuken that are the final hammer blow in a top notch performance. An unapologetically heavy end Metalcore album, “Eternal Lords” has been well worth the wait [7.5/10]

Track listing

  1. Thrones
  2. Collapse
  3. Animals
  4. Tremors
  5. Cold Sweat
  6. Two Thousand Fears
  7. Messenger
  8. Into The Abyss
  9. Eternal Lords
  10. 8643
  11. Domestic Horrors
  12. A Serpent’s Tongue
  13. Unraveled

Eternal Lords” by Breakdowns At Tiffany’s is out now

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