Review by criscool623 on January 1, 2023.

Once again I'm here reviewing an album which I casually found navigating through the most unknown bands on the scene.

This is my first encounter with Eternal Candle. When I saw the cover of this album and listened to some samples, I really got interested in it because of the atmosphere that it apparently possessed. It sounded pretty interesting, so I decided to listen to it more deeply to see what I could find.

There's something I have to mention from the beginning: the production and sound quelity is great. All the instruments are clear, even the bass guitar; it doesn't have a great participation in the album as to the technique and the fills included, but it does provide the music with more power and "thickness". The drums have a strong and powerful song; the acoustic and clean guitars sound clean and shining. Well, the sound is pristine and very clear in general, so there's no complaint in this aspect.

In general, this is an album with a dark, mysterious and enigmatic sound. There are some clean voice sections that contrast the brutality of the rest of the vocals and that add more beauty to the final product. It's a long album, though, but if you enjoy the long doom metal-oriented albums, this can be an advantage for you when checking it out. There's not a moment in the album where there's a great expotion of technique or brutality; instead, the album follows a pretty linear path with some progressive tempo changes (but not that mind-blowing, to be honest), exchanges between the electric guitars and more acoustic parts, and an atmosphere that invites the listener to relax and enjoy the sonorous journey. In that sense, this is some kind of meditative metal; the music is so calm and relaxing that I don't doubt that there may be some metalhead(s) who will use this to have a moment of relaxation.

Now, there's something I have to confess: I didn't really get to love this album nor say this is a marvellous release or something that should be known for all the world or have opinions like those ones. When I really love an album to that level, I write passionately about its virtues and failures and try to make myself as understood as possible as of the level of appreciation to the oeuvre, but sadly that was no the case with "The Carved Karma". But that does NOT mean I'm destroying the album, that I'm telling this is a bad release or something that should be avoided. I'm concious about its virtues (the sound quality, the atmosphere. the instrumentation, the voice changes, etc.) and I really think this album has a lot of quality as for its songwriting. However, sadly, I couldn't connect with this album. This is , for me, one more curiosity in my collection, but not something that I'll listen to frequently.

This is STRICTLY my personal opinion. I can say this is a well done good doom-death metal effort and a good proposal for those who enjoy this kind of dark, slow and relaxing metal-shaped music. However, I can't give it a very high rating for not captivating me as I wanted. But don't take my opinion that seriously. I recommend you check it out yourselves. Enjoy or suffer it, but the best way to know how good this album is is by giving it a try.

Rating: 8.3 out of 10