Ethereal Kingdoms

Tag: Review

‘An excellent debut’ – Devilution review

★★★★☆ from DEVILUTION in this review of HOLLOW MIRROR!
Well-known in the Danish metal scene for their sharp ears and even sharper pens, we are thrilled with the lovely words from journalist Henrik Hjellerup Bro in this review of our debut album.

“SOFIA SCHMIDT‘s voice easily spans several octaves and not only is her clean vocal in peak form, she’s also handling the album’s growls. Truly a woman with an excellent organ”

From our performance at Royal Metal Fest 2019 Portrait by Jakob Dinesen // Devilution

“ETHEREAL KINGDOMS is a symphonic metal band, but it’s a bit more than that. A significant amount of black metal sneaks its way into the songs.”

Especially ‘ENDINGS’ was highlighted as an example of this, with massive blasts and the duality of Sofia’s growls and clean vocals.

Endings – a story of blind of hope and bitter consequence.
Mighty Music 2019 – Video by Scott Rudd

“The inspiration from NIGHTWISH is present, but opposed to the swedes, ETHEREAL KINGDOMS is carried by guitar, bass and drums rather than long keyboard sequences”

The comparison to the Finnish symphonic legends was also noticed by METAL A DAY’s Mads Pristed in another review.
Devilution’s Henrik Bro continues:

“HOLLOW MIRROR is an excellent full-length debut from ETHEREAL KINGDOMS. This reviewer totally overlooked that in 2019. It could have made its way to the top 5 Danish releases of the year”

DEVILUTION journalist Henrik Kjellerup Bro highlighted BEGINNINGS, ENDINGS and APPARITION from our collection of ghost stories.
What are your favorites on HOLLOW MIRROR?

January 16, 2020
“Beauty interrupted by brutality” – Review of Hollow Mirror

‘Hollow Mirror’ Review

Reviewer Jacob Jørgensen from Calles Rock Corner gave our upcoming debut album a listen and awarded a grand 6 out of 6 stars in this ‘Hollow Mirror’ review!
★★★★★★

Ethereal Kingdoms ‘Hollow Mirror’
The wonderful and strange album cover art was created by talented Anna Holm Sørensen

“It’s a very dreamy and strong release, that brings you into different moods. It’s an exciting journey listening to this album”

“Beauty interrupted by brutality”

  “Definitely a band I will follow in the future!”

Thank you so much!

Article in Danish 🇩🇰

________________

Enter the theatrical metal experience at this one of a kind acoustic concert with special guests, celebrating the release of Hollow Mirror.
We have merch, a signature drink, visual surprises and just a really good party waiting for you this evening.
You are invited! Join us!
🔸11th of October – Ethereal Kingdoms “Hollow Mirror” Release Fest + Koncert – Zeppelin Rock Bar

____________

‘Hollow Mirror’ has been well received by the press already:
Metal Temple – 8 of 10 stars – “A perfect balance of brightness and darkness”
Musica.be – 82/100 score – “A complete range of voices”
Lords of Metal – 7.7 of 10 stars – “A very deserving debut”

Ethereal Kingdoms – Distance
A story of breaking the unbreakable. Beautiful cover artwork by illustrator Anna Holm
Mighty Music 2019

‘Hollow Mirror’ is out 11th of October 2019 via Mighty Music.
You can pre-order it already now and be among the first to explore the 9 new stories on our critically acclaimed album.

🔸Vinyl:
  http://targetshop.dk/prod…/etheral-kingdoms-hollow-mirror-lp

🔸CD: 
http://targetshop.dk/prod…/etheral-kingdoms-hollow-mirror-cd

🔸Pre-add Hollow Mirror to your streaming service of choice:
https://backl.ink/24409441

October 2, 2019
‘A very deserving debut’ – Review of Hollow Mirror

Ethereal Kingdoms live at Wintersun’s 15th anniversary show
Portrait by Skoett Photography

Sjak Roks of Dutch magazine Arrowlords of Metal entered the soundscapes on our debut album Hollow Mirror. He has shared his thoughts in this review here:

“(…) considering that the band has only been around for two years and considering that this is only their first album, we can certainly speak of a very deserving debut.”

“(…) the song material of Ethereal Kingdoms sounds quite bombastic over time, but luckily they regularly alternate with both subdued passages and very aggressive pieces. “

“The soprano vocals, the growls as well as the whisper vocals during the quieter passages are all provided by Sofia and that can be called quite impressive.”

“(…) The songs are definitely worth listening to and especially ‘Ashes Within’ (with its blast beats, heavily set orchestral parts, a very dark atmosphere and a lot of variation in the vocals for me the showpiece of this album) and ‘Endings’ appeal to the imagination(…)”

7,7/10 score! Thank you so much!
★★★★★★★★☆☆
Article in Dutch 🇳🇱

Ethereal Kingdoms – Hollow Mirror

Thank you so much!

Enter Hollow Mirror
October 11th
Vinyl – CD – Digital

Pre-add to your preferred streaming service for free

Endings – A story of blind hope and bitter consequence
Video by the magnificent Scott Rudd Films
Mighty Music 2019

Other metal media outlets have said the following about Hollow Mirror:

6 of 6 stars – “Beauty interrupted by brutality” – Calle’s Rock Corner
82/100 score – “A complete range of voices” – Musica.be
8 of 10 stars – “A perfect balance of brightness and darkness” -Metal Temple
10 of 10 stars – “You’re in for an experience” – Metalized

September 30, 2019
‘A show of the grandiose kind’ – Copenhagen Metal Fest live review

Our intimate Copenhagen Metal Fest show gets ★★★★☆ from Metal-A-Day in this live review!

We were invited for the very first installment of Copenhagen Metal Fest. A festival celebrating danish metal culture and Heavymetal.dk‘s 20th anniversary on three renowned stages: Amager Bio, Beta2300 and Teater ZeBu.

We’ve played both of the first stages at Nordic Noise and Dirty Days of Summer Festival, but we had yet to unleash our theatrical metal universe at at true, real theatre stage.
We got this opportunity when we were offered a slot at 21st of September 2019 at Teater ZeBu stage.

The reporter Anders Lundtang witnessed our performance, which included our new single ‘Distance‘:

“(…) you feel like you’re witnessing a show of the grandiose kind!”
“Not two of their shows are alike (…)”
“(…) you cannot be anything but impressed (…)”
-Anders Lundtang, Metal A Day

THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Explore other live reviews of Ethereal Kingdoms in our reviews section, where you can also find album reviews and more.

Reportage: Copenhagen Metal Fest 2019 – Dag 2

Outstanding portraits created by Anders Mikkelsen // Mikkelsen-Photo

Our next show will be a special acoustic performance with unique guests.
🔸 11th of October – Ethereal Kingdoms “Hollow Mirror” Release Fest + Koncert – Acoustic special show at Zeppelin Rock Bar

September 27, 2019
‘A complete range of voices’ – Review of Hollow Mirror

Portrait by Jannie Ravn for Blastbeast.dk
30th of August 2019
From our special theatrical show featuring Sigurbodi Gretarsson (left) at Wintersun‘s 15th anniversary

Luc from musica.be immersed himself into our theatrical metal universe in this review for the site musica.be
His 82/100 score and thoughts of the album is summarized here:

“Maybe next year we will have to say that we found “Hollow Mirror” to be one of the better albums of the year”

“(…) this sounds a lot darker and more threatening than most in this genre (…) mainly reflected in the vocals and the threat that comes from a whole bunch of fragments.”

“Sofia has a complete range of voices ranging from powerful clean vocals (…) to extremely deep and heavy growls that a bunch of male colleagues cannot imitate!”

Review in Belgian 🇧🇪

Ethereal Kingdoms: Hollow Mirror

Hollow Mirror is out October 11th 2019 on digital, CD and vinyl.

We celebrate with a wonderful acoustic concert release party at Zeppelin Rock bar with special guests and surprises.
Join us 11th of October at 19.30
You are invited
_________

🔸Pre-add to your streaming service: https://backl.ink/24409441

http://targetshop.dk/product/etheral-kingdoms-hollow-mirror-lp

http://targetshop.dk/product/etheral-kingdoms-hollow-mirror-cd

Other media say the following about ‘Hollow Mirror’:
‘A perfect balance of brightness and darkness ‘ 8 of 10 stars – Metal Temple
‘A very deserving debut’ 7,7 of 10 stars – Arrow Lords of Metal

September 26, 2019
‘A perfect balance of darkness and brightness’ – Review of Hollow Mirror

Portrait by Skoett Photography
30th of August 2019, Gimle
From our special theatrical show at Wintersun’s 15th Anniversary show

Paul Romero took the dive into the Hollow Mirror. He has awarded our debut album ★★★★★★★★☆☆, landing it in the”Excellent”-category in a review from Metal Temple! 🇬🇧

“A perfect balance of darkness and brightness”

“This band has a good chance of becoming a new force in the genre (…) definitely on my ‘bands to watch out for’ list.”

“This is the first time I felt this certain tickle in my chest”

Read the full article here
http://www.metal-temple.com/…/cd_3/e_2/ethereal-kingdoms.htm

Thank you so much!

Follow Metal Temple on facebook and check out their blog for more reviews of both shows and releases from metal bands from all over the world

Creating Hollow Mirror was an intense and very rewarding process for all of us in the band. When we got our record deal in late September 2018, we immediately started the process of creating new songs and stories for the album. The direction and universe was already set so the stories and soundscape seemed to create themselves at times. We started the first recordings already in November 2018 and finished the last recording in late January 2019. We were overwhelmed by the interest and support of our numerous guest artists. It was truly something magical to hear the lines you’ve written played by real people with their own interpretation. All this intensity, excitement, big emotions and sleepless nights went into Hollow Mirror. This being our first album, it is really close to our hearts and we hope that you will enjoy exploring the soundscape we have made for you!

Pre-order ‘Hollow Mirror’ today

http://targetshop.dk/product/etheral-kingdoms-hollow-mirror-lp

http://targetshop.dk/product/etheral-kingdoms-hollow-mirror-cd

Pre-add Hollow Mirror to your favourite streaming service for free

Other media say the following about ‘Hollow Mirror’:
‘A very deserving debut’ – Arrow Lords Of Metal
‘A complete range of voices’ – Musica.be

September 25, 2019
“This band has a story to tell” – Nordic Noise live review

Our Nordic Noise 2019 special show gets ★★★★★★★★☆☆ from powerofmetal.dk!
We had the honor of playing at the big stage of Amager Bio for the 2019 installment of Nordic Noise Festival. We were in the grand company of Candlemass, Tygers of Pan Tang and other great acts during the two lovely spring days in May.

Nordic Noise 2019 lineup poster.

For this show, we celebrated the release of our first single Heartchamber.
We wanted to make something magical, so we brought special guest violinist Amalie Skriver and The Kingdom Choir along to our show, as well as some special effects.

A shattered violin on the stage of Amager Bio
Portrait by Mark Stoumann for Metal A Day

Journalist Mia Hall of Danish webzine powerofmetal.dk witnessed this performance.
These are excerpts of her thoughts:

“The way this singer sings is rarely heard. Her opera voice, screams and growling shows some real technicality to her singing, and it is almost as if she has different masks she puts on. Very impressive!”

“I can tell that this band has a story to tell, as the singer is very active on stage, both dancng around like a fairy and then jumping around, growling and breaking things on stage. The choir and fiddle also helps to get the atmosphere in that right kind of mood, as symphonic power metal can give. And the harmonies sound GREAT!”

“No matter what they do, it can not be less intense than what they performed this evening.”
Mia Hall, Powerofmetal.dk

Ethereal Kingdoms live at Nordic Noise 2019 with special show.
Portrait by Stoumann of Metal A Day

https://powerofmetal.dk/live-review/ethereal-kingdoms-nordic-noise-2019

Thank you so much powerofmetal.dk!
GAFFA and Metal A Day was also present at this performance.
Want to hear more impressions of our shows?
Check out the reviews section for album and live reviews!

May 13, 2019
“Refreshingly ambitious” – Royal Metal Fest live review

4,5 out of 5 stars for Ethereal Kingdoms special theatrical show at Royal Metal Fest 2019

Sofia Schmidt unleashing fury with a torn out heart at Royal Metal Fest 2019.
Portrait by Jacob Dinesen of Devilution

Royal Metal Fest 2019 was a very special show for Ethereal Kingdoms.
Supported by a special grant from Metal Royale foundation, DMF and DAF, we created our very first installment of out theatrical special show format. Employing two dancers and premiering The Kingdom Choir, we told many of the stories of Hollow Mirror for the very first time at the Radar stage, 6th of April 2019. With the use of video backdrops, special light show by Martin Rasmussen (MØL, Hatesphere, Copenhell and more) and lots of special effects, we brought our stories and songs to life in a new format.

Journalist Andreas Kielland was present and awarded us a grand 4,5 of 5 stars!

“There’s more attention to detail than what is found within several bigger acts in symphonic metal.”

“The narrative is a chapter of its own. For the band’s theatrical, epic foundation does not only cover the form, but also the content”

“They are a refreshingly ambitious project”

“I would watch them live again, not only because I feel truly entertained but uplifted, inspired and hopeful on behalf on the group”
Andreas Kielland, revolution-inc.dk

Ghosts came alive at Royal Metal Fest 2019 with our theatrical special show.
Portrait by Jakob Dinesen of Devilution

Thank you so very much Revolution Music!

Royal Metal Fest also reached out to us for an interview. We spoke to them before the show when we were in the heat of planing the performance and rehearsing it to perfection. You can find this interview and more in the interviews section here on our website.

Other metal media left this night with the following impressions:

9 of 10 stars – “I witnessed something unique” – Heavymetal.dk

4 of 5 stars – “Death, love and ghosts” – Metaltone.dk

April 10, 2019