G'day Mark, thanks for your time on The Fallout and congratulations on the success from Sleep Of Reason! Since the album's release, how has everything been so far for The Eternal?

Well things are going well, there have been hitches of course, Sleep Of Reason saw its release in Europe back in October 2005, so not having a local release until a few months ago made it was hard to tour too much locally for the album. But regardless of the slight setbacks we have had a very productive year and it has been great to see that the album has been received so well.

You guys recently played a few shows up in Europe, how was it up there? How have the responses been like at your live shows?

Well, we did a European tour for our first album The Sombre Light Of Isolation back in September/October 2004. It was an amazing experience. We actually started in Hong Kong being the first western doom band to play there, then we shot off to Helsinki Finland for a press day. It was after this quite exciting introduction to international touring the real hard work began and we drove 12,000km around Europe. We managed to cover a fair bit of ground playing shows in Luxembourg, Holland, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany and the UK. We then headed back to Finland for the final show with Swallow the Sun. We managed to get to unwind for a few days in Finland and check out the place before heading home. Having an old school sauna by a Finnish lake & drinking beer was a very cool way to end it all!

So we can only hope that we make it back next year for the next album. We did have some plans to tour America and Europe about this time but we chose to stay home and follow so local touring opportunities. It was a real eye opener to see how much metal is part of the culture in some countries. Even though it was a club tour and not huge crowds every night, we got to meet a lot of our fans one on one and I would say the response was really positive.

What are your opinions of the band's development to this point?

Well its hard to say, I think we have had some great musicians come and go in the last few years, but I would say the current touring line up has been the strongest. I really feel our drive to tour and record has helped us shape up our skills as a live band. So I'd say in the three years we have existed we have accomplished some cool things but I try not to look at it too much past that.

Now, after your first album The Sombre Light Of Isolation, came the daunting task of preparing and writing the so-called "sophomore effort". Were you guys a little worried that you wouldn't repeat the same success with Sleep Of Reason as you did with The Sombre Light?

Well Sleep Of Reason was a bit of a blur. We got home from our European tour we had to hit the studio within three months and find a new drummer and guitarist, so we had little time to focus on what was expected of us or if it would succeed, we just knew we felt fired up to get it done and keep the ball rolling. I would not say Sleep Of Reason is an instant hit or anything, but it seems to be doing well over time and has opened a lot of doors for us, so for this we are grateful.

When writing a second or third album, it's always good to not make it a "carbon copy" of its predecessor. While Sleep Of Reason still retains the same sound and style of The Eternal, would I be right in saying there are indeed a few changes apparent in the songwriting?

These changes are just natural, as a band spends more time together and has more experience, you tend to get closer to making that album you really wanted to make. We do not intend to keep making the same album but we don't go out of our way to do anything differently, we just let it flow and if we like the songs we are happy. Some people seem to have trouble that we don't play pure doom or whatever, but I feel the minute you label your self like that you're just going to end up making the same album over and over again.

Has signing to a Finnish record label (Firebox Records) benefited The Eternal's career, rather than sign to a local label?

Yes, having an international profile as an Australian band is hard to get, so this benefited us greatly early on. It's pretty much a matter of distribution and a lot of Australian labels have limited distribution outside of Australia. The main problem was that Firebox being on the other side of the world didn't have Australian distro, but Modern Invasion have now taken the label on, so expect to see more Firebox releases in stores soon!

After the departure of drummer Marty O'Shea, you currently have Pete Marin from Melbourne progressive rockers Template filling in. Is he just playing on your current tour?

Pete has been playing with us for about nine months now, so he has done most of the Sleep Of Reason touring. At this stage he has not joined the band officially but we do plan to work with him on the new album. For those who love some prog, I suggest you check out his band Template, mind blowing!

Also on the talk of prog rock, many people have often branded The Eternal's music as "progressive". Do you guys regard this as a compliment, or do you, like many other artists that get branded this, dislike the so-called "dreaded P word"?

We have some of these elements, but its just part of the over all picture. I have no problems with people saying that, as some of my favourite bands are of the progressive nature, but technicality is not really our focal point, it's more about the feeling. One of the things that appealed to me about Peter Marin is his ability to prog it up a bit!

In the past, the band used to be known as Cryptal Darkness. How long had you been together as Cryptal Darkness and what kinds of things did you guys get up to?

I would say The Eternal and Cryptal Darkness have become quite different bands, with now only me remaining from the last Cryptal Darkness line-up. We were together for about seven years and really focused on Doom, recording three albums, Endless Tears, They Whispered You Had Risen and Chapter II: The Fallen. I kind of see this band as the stepping stone to what The Eternal have become.

Why the change of name to The Eternal?

The name change was symbolic of a new beginning and me taking charge over my own music career I guess. There was too much struggle and frustration associated with Cryptal Darkness, it seemed like starting fresh was the right thing to do.

Is any of Cryptal Darkness' music still available?

Firebox stock some Cryptal Darkness CDs at their web store but this is very limited and its only a matter of time before they are out of press.

Through The Eternal's two albums, there seems to be a bit of a concept following, or a connection of some sort between the albums. In the middle of the title track of The Sombre Light Of Isolation, is the haunting lyric "Awaken… Arise" which is also the name of the introduction track to Sleep Of Reason. Is there a concept running between the albums?

Very perceptive of you! Well I've always been a fan of having a few concepts that tie albums together, I always liked that line and it just seemed fitting for the intro of Sleep Of Reason. I think even as the band progresses musically, lyrically we will continue the darker themes.

Are you the main songwriter?

I have composed most of the material on the last few albums. Lyrically James and Chris contributed on Sleep Of Reason, but Sombre Light was pretty much my song writing. I don't think its because I wanna run the show musically, I am open to all the guys having their input, but I just seem to write more I guess.

What are your influences in songwriting and writing lyrics?

Various things, musically melody and feeling are important to me, maybe I listen too much Pink Floyd or I'm getting old! Haha! I listen to lots of stuff; heavy and mellow, but it's always been those riffs that crushed your heart into the ground that appealed to me. I grew up on Katatonia, Anathema, My Dying Bride, Candlemass and many others, but over the years I've found my self listening to stuff like Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd, Dead Can Dance and much 70's rock.

It is hard to say what directly influences us as we all like such different stuff and I believe we all bring something different to the final song even if I wrote it. Lyrically we sing about stuff that's real to us in our lives, we try not to dress it up too much in mystical stuff. This has been positive, as it's been great to get feed back from people saying they relate to our lyrics and they have had some effect on them.

Earlier in the year, you guys supported H.I.M. and Opeth on their respective Australian tours. How did you guys go?! Tell us of your experiences!

Well it was a very strange month to say the least! We had not previously done anything of this size and were not expecting to, it was only a week before H.I.M. were due to come to Australia that we found out we had the support! Next thing we knew, five days later we are walking on stage in front of 3000 frothing HIM fans in Sydney and 1,800 in Melbourne, it's all a bit of a blur really! It was about 2am the night before the H.I.M. tour that I found out we had the Opeth national support, I was just in shock really, and needless to say I didn't sleep at all that night. So by the time Opeth came around we where a bit more prepared, I would say that was the highlight of all this band stuff so far. Opeth were really great guys and we left that tour with some great memories and we also got to play at some great venues I never thought I'd ever get to play in.

After all the touring, will The Eternal begin recording a third album soon?

We hope so! We have about 14 new songs down and plan to pen a few more, picking the best ten or so. But we are well into the process, we are actually at Palm Studios tracking three new demo tracks that the moment; "Silence", "Without Reason" and "Brighter Day".

What kinds of things could we expect on a third Eternal album? Is there anything you can tell us just yet?

Those who have heard some of our demos say it still sounds like us, but seem also surprised at some of the stuff we have done. We have really focused on using as many organic and analog sounds we can, so maybe our love of all things 70's rock may show through a touch, but I would say its still as dark and emotive as anything we have done.

Finally, what kinds of things does the future have in store for The Eternal?

In the immediate future we would like to focus on the new album and hopefully work on those plans for some American and European touring next year. I never try to look too far ahead because some unexpected change of plan always seems to pop up!

Thanks very much for your time Mark! Any further comments, etc?

Just a quick thanks to those that have picked up Sleep Of Reason, and to those of you in Brisbane we hope we can sort out some shows for you soon! Cheers!