"Gothic electronica practitioners Vampire Nation started in 1994, under the leadership of Egypt-born tech-head Fredrik Von Hamilton. He had been a world traveler since birth, and his unique experiences and bizarre musical tastes lent themselves to the strange songs he started writing. Several independent albums were released throughout the late 90's and into the next decade, although their success on MP3.com led to efforts like Wise-Ta-Nech and Eternal getting bigger recognition from the mainstream." -All Music Vampire Nation Eternal On this follow-up to 2001's Cosmos LP, Frederick Von Hamilton continues to pursue his long-abiding interest in wedding Egyptian modalities to hip hop inflected, ambient club music. Recent efforts have been underwhelming, falling well short of the mystical qualities of his 1997 cassette, Coph Nia [The Hexagon Chronicles]. Eternal is a welcome return to form. Winning tracks like "Camel," "Broken Pottery" and "Oasis Near Luxor" are mysterious and groovy. I could do without the spoken-word monotony of "Deadly" and "Temple Smoke" but those two clunkers are at the end, so no big whoop. -Jim Santo Demo Universe