Los Angeles' ECHOES OF ETERNITY are not your typical female-fronted Metal act. While it is true that they have the angelic vocals that have become the hallmark of like-minded bands, they also have something that has been sadly forgotten by many of their contemporaries - excellent music. Having released their debut album, "The Forgotten Goddess", earlier in the year on Nuclear Blast, ECHOES OF ETERNITY have also embarked on tours with Metal stalwarts like SYMPHONY X and EDGUY. Look for them on tour with TRAIL OF TEARS in early 2008. METALEATER caught up with vocalist Francine Boucher and guitarist Brandon Patton.

Brandon - "Fantastic. Winning lots of new fans over. It's been good - playing good-sized crowds, the bands are awesome - LIGHT THIS CITY, INTO ETERNITY and EDGUY - great people and great bands. It's a good show."

How would you say it is compared to the SYMPHONY X tour?

Brandon - "It's a slightly different crowd. It's really comparable - it's been a lot of the same venues. The crowd response has been a lot better this time because half the people there have seen us before and so we have more people there to see us than we did last time, so that's good. That was our first tour, so you're playing to a colder audience; this time it's not so cold. The crowd response is actually better this time."

Francine - "It wasn't that cold, actually, for the first tour. It was actually pretty good, but we have made some new fans from last time that we're here this time."

Brandon - "Yeah, the crowd response was way better this time - there's no comparison, really to the crowd response. I mean, it's been way more crowd interaction with the band, whereas the first time, most of the people there didn't know who we are, so a lot more people know who we are this time because of that tour, so it's been awesome."

What are your expectations for your upcoming tour with TRAIL OF TEARS?

Brandon - "That's a good question. Uh... (laughs) We're not sure what to expect. We're doing a series of headline dates before and after that; a week through the Midwest and then a week in Canada afterwards, western Canada, so that's different for us, 'cause we've never done headline shows on a tour. We're not sure what to expect - the guys seem really cool and they're a great band and this is their first tour in America, so there should be a good audience for it. CELLADOR's gonna be on the tour and they're an awesome band, too; UNEXPECT - it's a really good bill and for the first time, we're not going to be opening the show, which is cool for us. We're moving a little further up the bill and that's always good, so we expect it to be good. It's going to be long, it's going to be cold, but it should be a really good tour."

Francine - "We haven't toured in the wintertime yet, so that's the only thing that's on my mind is just trying to stay alive."

I noticed that you guys had a lot of MySpace activity prior to signing with Nuclear Blast; do you think perchance that a lot of that activity helped you get the Nuclear Blast deal?

Francine - "I mean, it helped, but I don't think it made the deal because there's a lot of bands on MySpace. I think they just liked the demo that we sent them, they believed in our music. It didn't hurt to have MySpace, but I don't think that's the sole purpose of that."

Brandon - "I don't see where it could have hurt, but I don't think that just because somebody has a lot of activity on MySpace is necessarily going to get them a record deal. But at the same time, there's signed bands with less MySpace activity than unsigned bands, so I'm not sure... you know, it's a good communications tool, it's a good networking tool - I don't see where it could have harmed us, but I don't think it got us signed; it's not like we won a contest and got signed, we worked for it, we wrote some good songs. That's the first thing - it doesn't matter if you have two million friends on MySpace, but if you don't have some good songs, you're not going to get signed."

Alright, what can we expect from new material?

Francine - "We've started writing some new material already and it's going to be darker and heavier and one of the things that's different from our live show from our album is that our live show's a lot more heavy and I think you can expect that on the new album, as well."

Brandon - "It will be a lot more energetic, a lot more aggressive and more beautiful at the same time; it's going to be extreme in both directions. Certain parts are even more melodic and there are certain parts that are faster, heavier and more aggressive, so it's going to go in both directions and just expand on what we did on the first album. It's still going to sound like us, but anybody who even remotely liked this album will love the next album. It's going to be more refined, more energetic and just even better. I think people will really like it."

Do you think that part of the reason you're getting a larger fanbase has to do with the fact that you're one of the very few female-fronted bands that's not like "listen to the pretty vocals... and oh yeah, there's music, too." You guys have actually done something where you've got great vocals and great vocals in combination with each other.

Brandon - "Well, first of all, thank you; that's a hell of a compliment, second of all, I think that does set us apart. We didn't overlook riffs, you know, having great riffs, having a lot of guitar work and being heavy and being a good band, as opposed to just being pretty vocals. So I think that helped us a lot, I think that's a big part of our sound and what sets us apart from other female-fronted bands is the attention to the music - to having killer riffs. Like, you could subtract the vocal from 'The Forgotten Goddess' and still have a kick-ass album. But with the vocals in it, it just makes it even more compelling to listen to, so I think that's an accurate assessment. I mean, that was our goal when we started the band; we heard other female-fronted bands that we loved, but we didn't hear any guitar riffs, we didn't hear any heaviness, we didn't hear any double bass, you know, no thrashiness. We thought that was missing, so we wanted to come join the field, but not do the same thing every other female-fronted band in Europe was doing, so we definitely have a different sound than the European bands, for sure."

Tell us a little bit about the filming of the video for "Voices In A Dream".

Francine - "We did it in two days with a Swedish director and the first day, we did it in downtown Los Angeles, we just kind of filmed the inside scenes, and the second day, we did the outdoor scenes in...what park was that in Hollywood?"

Brandon - "Was it Running Canyon? I think so."

Francine - "So it was a lot of fun. It was our first time doing a video, so we had a great time doing it."

Brandon - "Overall it was a good experience, never having done a video before, so it was definitely cool. The next time we do a video, we want to have better planning. This video was really spontaneous - there wasn't a lot of pre-production in it, but we're really proud of the end result, but next time it's going to be much more intricate, detailed and planned out, a lot more pre-production, a lot more thought process into the video. This one was not like that - it was done on the fly, but it turned out well and the song is good, so it's nothing to be ashamed of, that's for sure."

Just one last question and it has to do with sending a message to other publications with less than professional people. I was talking to our website director and we was telling me about a couple interviews with you where certain interviewers were asking personal questions and just being a little bit creepy. What kind of punishment do you think is applicable to people like this?

Francine - (laughs) "Well, I'm not a vengeful person, so I don't really wish harm on anyone, even if they deserve it, so I would just...you know, I try to answer those questions in a way where...um, how can I explain? I kind of let them know that it's not really their business, but at the same time, it is Metal, you know, I'm not doing Country, wholesome Country, so it is to be expected and I'm just going to handle it in a manner where I stay in a professional state of mind."

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Brandon - "We think that those people should be strung up by their nuts. (laughter) No. Really, the people that ask those questions, their intentions are good. You know, they're not being mean spirited and they're not trying to belittle Francine when they ask those questions - they're just being metalheads, so it's hard to take offense to it, 'cause if it was mean spirited and done with malice, then it's easy to get offended by it. But when somebody's just curious 'cause you have a female in the band, which is usual in this type of music, and there's a genuine curiosity about how having a female in the band changes the dynamic of the band - everyone wants to know who's banging the singer; that's the number one question, 'well who's banging the singer?' And being a guy and being a metalhead myself, I've asked myself that question about other female-fronted bands, so it is what it is. It's just the nature of having a female in your band - that's just the way it is. So it's hard to take offense to it, you know. But we knew that going in, that it would be like that, so it's all cool."

Francine - "I'm not easily offended either, so I can take a lot."

Brandon - "Yeah, she's one of the guys."

Francine - "I am pretty much." [FIN]