INTO ETERNITY Reveals Details Surrounding Band's First Conceptual Effort

For proof that from great suffering comes great art, look no further than INTO ETERNITY founding guitarist/principal songwriter Tim Roth. Much as he drew inspiration from his mother's passing when writing the band's critically acclaimed 2006 release, "The Scattering Of Ashes", Roth again found the strength and resilience to turn negatives into positives on the "extreme progressive metal" band's forthcoming release, "The Incurable Tragedy".

INTO ETERNITY's first concept album, "The Incurable Tragedy" was inspired by the deaths of Roth's two best friends, brothers who succumbed to cancer within two months of one another. To make matters worse, when the band began demoing new material shortly after the completion of the "Scattering" tour a star-making year of shows that saw the band perform alongside such internationally renowned acts as DREAM THEATER, LAMB OF GOD, MEGADETH, OPETH, ARCH ENEMY, THE HAUNTED and DARK TRANQUILLITYRoth's father was diagnosed with cancer as well. Showing no mercy, the disease claimed his life last year, just 10 days before Christmas.

Roth channeled his emotions into a moving and riveting album, due out on Century Media Records this summer. This spring, however, the band will take a break from the studio to tour throughout North America with like-minded progressive metal shredders SYMPHONY X. That trek will be followed by the band's first tour of Japan, where they will perform alongside AT THE GATES, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, MAYHEM and PIG DESTROYER at the prestigious "Extreme The Dojo" festivals.

To tide fans over until the release of "The Incurable Tragedy", the band has posted on its MySpace an unmastered rough mix of a brand new song, "Diagnosis Terminal", which it will perform live at each of their spring concerts. The track is classic INTO ETERNITY, featuring a heavy groove, stop-on-a-dime time changes, reflective lyrics, a memorable chorus, a string-shredding solo, and vocals that range from guttural growls to soaring harmonies.

"'Diagnosis Terminal' is one of the heaviest songs on the new record," Roth says. "The song started with a chorus I had written. Justin (Bender, guitars) then sent me a MP3 demo of a few killer riffs he had, and the song was born. The key I had my chorus in didn't match the pitch of his new riffs, so that's how we came up with the idea of having the same chorus, but in two different keys. I think it sounds clever now, but it was actually just a mistake!

"The whole song has some whacked-out time changes, but we tried to make it all sound as smooth as we could," he continues. "It's tough to make off-time riffs sound natural, but that is the fun of playing in a progressive metal band. I really enjoy the interlude in the middle and the end of the song. On the new record, we have a few riffs in 9/8 and the main solo in 'Diagnosis' is a good example of that.

"After we finished up the music, Stu (Block, vocals) came in and wrote all the melodies and lyrics, and the song 'Diagnosis Terminal' was born. The whole band was involved in this song, and I'm really happy with the way it all turned out."