Bound In Fear – ‘Eternal’ [EP] [Album Review]

About thirty seconds into Eternal, Ben Mason, vocalist with UK headstovers Bound In Fear, howls “take my head to the muthafuckin’ chopping block,” and you know you’re going to be set for a pretty vile twenty-odd minutes. Eternal, the follow-up to Bound In Fear’s 2019 full-length debut, The Hand of Violence, picks up onslaught where the debut left off.

An EP that, in the band’s own words, touches on “memories that manifest into nightmares, substance abuse, childhood trauma and everything in between,” Eternal takes you to those places that you really don’t want to go. With song titles like “Left to Drown” and “My Mind, My Prison,” as well as being gut-wrenchingly heavy, Eternal is inspired by some really bleak experiences. Mixing pit-mauling hardcore with face-tearing deathcore, again, nothing Bound In Fear pummel through is new or original but you can’t deny the group put every ounce of their hearts into this emotion-releasing exercise.

At just over twenty-odd minutes long, Eternal gets straight to the point. It’s a terrifying rollercoaster of a journey with no respite as Bound In Fear plunge you into the collective minds of these five dark individuals. Be prepared, this a disturbing place to visit and one that, should you come out of the other side, will leave you a changed person. Eternal may only be a brief insight into the darkness that surrounds these musicians but, by the end of those twenty-five minutes, it will leave those of a weaker disposition feeling utterly traumatized.

Eternal Track Listing:

1. Cardinal Sin
2. Left To Drown
3. My Mind, My Prison
4. Everblack
5. The Harrowing

Run Time: 22:22
Record Label: Unique Leader Records
Release Date: March 26, 2021