Some albums arrive at exactly the right moment. Others feel like they have walked beside you through the darkness before helping point towards whatever might be waiting beyond it.
When I first caught up with Mark Kelson from The Eternal two years ago around the release of Skinwalker, I had only recently entered remission. At that point, I was still rebuilding my health and finding my feet again after a year of treatment and major surgeries.
When Mark and I came together again to talk about The Eternal’s eighth studio album, Obscured Horizons, our conversation naturally moved beyond the mechanics of making music. We spoke about mortality, sobriety, reclaiming the parts of yourself that have been lost and refusing to sit on the sidelines while life passes you by.
That human experience sits at the heart of Obscured Horizons. It is an album filled with dark melancholy and cinematic emotional weight, but it never surrenders completely to despair. Beneath the fractured identity, disillusionment and pain, there remains a glimpse of hope and a determination to move forward.
The Eternal will release Obscured Horizons on September 18 through Reigning Phoenix Music. Just days later, the band will join longtime friends Amorphis for four massive Australian shows.
Watch the Complete Interview With Mark Kelson
The Refined Sound of Four Creative Voices
Skinwalker introduced the current international version of The Eternal, bringing Mark Kelson and Richie Poate together with Finnish musicians Jan Rechberger and Niclas Etelävuori.
That album marked the beginning of a new chapter, but much of its material already existed in an early form before Jan and Niclas entered the picture. By the time Skinwalker was ready to enter the world, the four musicians were already moving into their next creative period.
Mark revealed that the band had around 15 songs in raw demo form before Skinwalker had even been released. Rather than slowing down after completing the album, The Eternal immediately began building upon the chemistry they had discovered.
This time, every member arrived with ideas of their own. Jan even submitted two complete demos containing the music and riffs, giving Mark the unfamiliar but exciting challenge of finding his voice within another member’s composition.
“It’s the refined sound of the four of us, and we’re really good at self-editing,” Mark explained.
That self-editing became one of the defining parts of the process. Mark and Jan spent three weeks together in the studio working exclusively on arrangements, cutting sections, adding new parts and continuing to question the material even while the album was being mixed.
The process was not about making songs shorter for the sake of it. It was about removing anything that distracted from what each composition was trying to say.
How Celestial Helped Shape the Album
The collection of material eventually became two distinct releases: the Celestial EP and Obscured Horizons.
Mark was determined that Celestial would stand as its own complete body of work rather than becoming one new song surrounded by leftover material. The songs were chosen carefully, allowing the EP to retain connections to Skinwalker while also creating a bridge towards what came next.
Tracks including “Celestial Veil,” “Casting Down Shadows,” “It All Ends Down” and “Everlasting” carried recognisable elements from different periods of The Eternal. Separating those songs allowed the band to make Obscured Horizons a tighter and more focused album.
It also resulted in something Mark had not necessarily planned: an almost conceptual lyrical journey.
The songs were written from what he was experiencing personally at the time. Once they were assembled, those recurring thoughts naturally formed a story about facing deception, breaking free from emotional limitations and moving into unfamiliar territory.
Dark Melancholy With a Glimpse of Hope
One thing that immediately struck me about Obscured Horizons was how beautifully it captures the fragility of mortality through deeply emotional and cinematic soundscapes.
It feels intimate and enormous at the same time. The album carries the weight of somebody confronting the darker parts of their existence, but there is always something beyond that darkness.
“The Eternal has always had this underlying dark melancholy with just this glimpse of hope,” Mark told me.
That balance reflects the human condition that has always existed within the band’s music. For Mark, it also captures how completely his life has changed during the years surrounding Skinwalker and Obscured Horizons.
He has been sober for three years, found a new relationship, bought a home and experienced major changes within his professional and creative life. The difficult periods remain present within the lyrics, but they no longer control where the story is heading.
The title itself serves as a reminder not to allow the noise, pressure and deception surrounding us to obscure the horizon ahead.
The darkness is real, but it is not the destination.
Refusing to Merely Exist
The opening songs make that intention immediately clear.
“Lament For The Hollow” begins with somebody who feels shattered and downtrodden, but the song refuses to leave them trapped within that defeat. It begins cutting away deception and rejecting the people, thoughts and experiences that prevent somebody from moving forward.
“Existing To Expire” continues that emotional movement. Its title initially sounds bleak, but the song is not simply about waiting for death. It confronts the difference between being alive and genuinely living.
“We’re all kind of doing that, but reclaim it,” Mark said while discussing the song.
That thought became one of the strongest points of connection in our conversation. Life can easily become something we observe from the sidelines. People remain trapped in jobs they hate, abandon the things that once made them feel alive or convince themselves that there will always be more time.
Whether somebody wants to make music, create art or even learn to bloody yodel, there comes a point where you must stop waiting and take the first step.
That sense of urgency has grown stronger for Mark as he has become more conscious of his own mortality. Turning 50 has not made him want to slow down. It has made him more determined to keep creating while he still has the opportunity.
“The Eternal is going with me until I can’t keep doing it, because that’s how I express myself.”
Closing the Door Through “Awaken”
The emotional journey reaches its natural conclusion through “Awaken.”
A line at the centre of the song, “Close the door, I don’t live there anymore,” helped solidify the entire concept of the album for Mark. Those words were not written as an abstract metaphor. They came directly from his decision to remove alcohol from his life.
By the end of the COVID period, alcohol had become a prison. It was keeping him on the couch, slowing his creativity and holding him inside a place he no longer wanted to occupy.
“I just one day stopped and I never drank again. And I couldn’t stop creating from that moment.”
That decision became a powerful turning point. “Awaken” closes the door on the place Mark once occupied and recognises that those walls can no longer contain him.
The song was not always guaranteed to close Obscured Horizons. Mark and Jan even spent around a month debating whether its progressive keyboard ending should remain. Jan initially wanted the track to finish with a heavier and more immediate conclusion, while Mark fought to preserve its atmospheric final passage.
Once “Awaken” became the album closer, everything fell into place. Jan agreed that the ending needed to remain exactly where it was.
I am glad it stayed. After everything the album has travelled through, that final passage gives the listener space to breathe. It does not erase what came before it, but it carries the feeling of somebody emerging from the storm and seeing the horizon again.
Bringing Obscured Horizons to Australian Stages
The Eternal will release Obscured Horizons only five days before beginning an Australian tour with Amorphis.
The connection between the two bands stretches back many years. The Eternal previously supported Amorphis in Australia in 2013, and the friendship that followed eventually helped bring Jan and Niclas into the band.
Now the two groups will share Australian stages again, this time with The Eternal launching an album that fully captures the identity of its current lineup.
For Mark, the shows are about far more than securing a strong touring opportunity. The members of both bands are close friends, while Amorphis remain one of the most distinctive and professional live acts he knows.
The tour will also give Australian audiences their first opportunity to experience material from Obscured Horizons almost immediately after the album enters the world.
Amorphis With Special Guests The Eternal: Presented By Your Mate Bookings
- Wednesday, September 23: The Croxton, Northcote
- Thursday, September 24: The Triffid, Brisbane
- Friday, September 25: Liberty Hall, Sydney
- Saturday, September 26: The Baso, Canberra
Tickets and complete show information are available through Your Mate Bookings.
The Eternal Are Not Done Yet
Obscured Horizons is a deeply personal album, but its message reaches beyond Mark’s individual experiences.
It understands that darkness and melancholy are unavoidable parts of being human. It also recognises that hope does not have to arrive as some blinding moment of revelation. Sometimes hope is simply finding the strength to close a door, remove what has been holding you back and take one more step towards something better.
That understanding of mortality has not made The Eternal retreat. It has given the band a renewed sense of urgency.
“We’re not done yet,” Mark said as our conversation came to an end.
Obscured Horizons arrives on September 18 through Reigning Phoenix Music. Preorder the album through Reigning Phoenix Music, grab your tickets for the Australian shows and watch my complete conversation with Mark Kelson above.
Start the album from the beginning, put on the headphones and crank it up bloody loud.
THE ETERNAL is:
Mark Kelson / Guitar & Vocals
Richie Poate / Guitar
Niclas Etelävuori / Bass
Jan Rechberger / Drums & Percussion
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