Ecliptica was born in 2006, somewhere in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria. Since then, they have been perfecting their vintage brand of heavy metal. Over the years, they supported bands like Symphony X, Tim Ripper Owens, Ad Vance and so on. So yes, you can say that Ecliptica is on their way to the top in this scene. This album is loaded with traditional heavy metal anthems, with both male and female vocals.
The album opens with 'Welcome To The Show' and immediately I'm reminded of acts like Doro, Girlschool, Dokken...Most of these references will remain during the album, making me wonder if I heard some of these songs before. 'Hate The Pain' and 'Road To Nowhere' take me way back into the old days when I discovered this genre, at moments even towards bands like Skid Row or Guns 'n Roses.
'Need Your Love' could be a Bon Jovi ballad, and it suddenly reminds me of those days when I could listen to them for hours on end. I wonder, where has that time gone? What happened to that little kid who stood in awe when he listened to those guitars and vocal harmonies.? Apparently he grew up, or at least he pretends to. Anyway, this song certainly is a strong piece of hard rock, and it certainly is not the only one.
There are also some nice surprises on this album. 'Persephone', for example, is a pretty strange track, reminding me of both Kiss and Anthrax for some reason. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but it is a splendid tune. By the end, Ecliptica also comes up with a very strong cover of Roxette's 'Sleeping In My Car'. So, from Roxette to Skid Row and loads of stuff in between, that's not a bad list of bands to be influenced by.
At some points in the album I said to my cat: 'Perhaps this is what Fleetwood Mac must have sounded like if they were a hard rock band'. My cat didn't understand but I'm hoping some of our readers will. In all, 'Ecliptified' is an excellent hard rock album which comes highly recommended if you're hungry for those good old days of flashing solos and energetic live performances. So check it out, it will be fun...
​Serge