History & Biography This Canadian band was formed in 1993 as an instrumental band in conjunction with the opening of their own Eclipse Studio.
Guitarist Glen Drover and drummer Shawn Drover, the founding members, are brothers. They had been playing together well before Eidolon and were in cover bands. After an independent release called Zero Hour the band parts ways with Siminic. This quartet records Seven Spirits. The album was a concept with religion and man being a motif. Criss Bailey leaves the band. Adrian Robichaud replaces him. With the next album already recorded, a copy of it is left with Metal Blade's Michael Trengert who soon offers the band a worldwide deal. In 1998 Glen records and tours with King Diamond in support of the Voodoo album. June 2000 brings the release of Nightmare World and June 2001 Hallowed Apparition. Now featuring vocalist Pat Mulock, Eidolon released its third Metal Blade album entitled Coma Nation in the summer of 2002. Skyscraper Music released the album in Canada. The band shot a video for the title track.
Apostles Of Defiance was released in October of 2006 and featured guest solos by Andy LaRocque.
Mulock was inexplicably replaced by Nils.K.Rue of Pagan's Mind in May, 2004. Glen Drover also joined Megadeth to tour with the American band. Despite all the changes, the band planned to enter the Los Angered Studio in the autumn. A new album emerged through Escapi in mid-2006, but the Drovers had made Megadeth their main home. Glen, who had left Megadeth, had a solo album in 2011. The debut solo album, Metalusion, was released on April 5th, 2011 through Magna Carta Records. The band went away at this juncture, but made a soft return in 2015. A group of metal musicians, called Metal For Cancer, was featured on a track to support cancer research. The project was created by Richard Ofsoski of Ofsoski with involvement by Glen Drover. The brothers began a new project in 2023. They called it Withering Scorn.
In Greek mythology an ‘eidolon’ is look-alike phantom of a living or dead person.
Reviews EIDOLON - COMA NATION - METAL BLADE/SKYSCRAPER
The new Eidolon album is here and the curiosity level is at an all-time high. Not only Eidolon is one of Canada's rising stars, but also the band is fronted by new singer Pat Mulock who was a hitherto unknown recruit. Well, the man's voice bears similarities to Chuck Billy, Bobby Blitz and Dave Mustaine and even John Cyrris. The Blitz comparison is not surprising though. The first thing that comes to mind given the title Coma Nation is Overkill after all. Mulock does not suffer from a lack of character.
Recorded at the band's own Eclipse Recording Studio and mastered by Andy LaRocque, Coma Nation benefits from a clean sound. The punchy and powerful guitar sound is augmented by an appropriate vocal level, yet the drum sound is not big enough and lacks that certain oomph to really matter. In fact they sound like D-drums.
Musically this is power metal with influences from Testament and Queensryche. Notwithstanding that Eidolon is by and large an original act. In fact Eidolon is a surprisingly motivated power metal combo given its Toronto origin. What stifles the album is its length. At 63 minutes (Within The Gates alone is ten minutes of involved lyrics) there are several interludes and segments which simply are not holding up the quality established by the rest of the album. These long-drawn moments are a drag on the album. The beginning of Lost Voyage, for instance, should have been played faster and cut in half - at least! Similarly the build-up for Within The Gates is a minute too long. Having said that, these drawn-out instances are not representative of the whole album. Coma Nation, as a whole, is a talented and above average output.
EIDOLON - APOSTLES OF DEFIANCE - SKYSCRAPER
The Canadian metal band Eidolon keeps getting heavier and heavier and better and better. The sound is a solid wall of power on Apostles Of Defiance. Some of this material would have even felt perfectly at home on Dark Angel's Time Does Not Heal album. The CD packs the double bass drums, a very respectable snare sound, heavy vocals, more backing vocals, stinging guitar rhythms and soaring leads. The more melodic songs are still there and Twisted Morality is one. Demoralized's vocal phrasing is lifted off Judas Priest's Rapid Fire and on it goes. The guitars on The Will To Remain are sharper than anything else out there. There are no duds on Apostles - well, except one.
The Canadian version of the disc adds a cover of Max Webster's In Context Of The Moon and a video for Coma Nation is even featured. Speaking of which, if a criticism could be levelled at the band, it would be the many subdued moments, intros, and acoustic medleys which ultimately protract the album beyond what is necessary. The inclusion of yet another cover version - the dud - is of course also desultory. It shatters the mood badly, does not belong and has been done to death.
Nevertheless, Eidolon would finally break through sales-wise with some decent promotion from its labels. The material on Apostles... speaks for itself. - Ali "The Metallian"
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