The first thing you notice when you hear Eternia’s music is the raw power in her voice. Three years ago, MoSS noticed the same thing, and the two Canadian artists began work on their very first collaborative project — drawing from Eternia’s greatest asset for the sonic backbone of At Last. According to MoSS, the goal was to capture her live stage-presence inside the recording booth. Just listening to the first handful of tracks makes it perfectly clear that the experiment was a success.

While her previous recordings came off as more subdued and calculating, here the MC born Silk-Kaya tears into MoSS’ sample-heavy production with a vengeance, all while maintaining the honesty and openess that attracted so many fans to her music in the first place. Even when she’s firing off battle raps, she manages to boost their authenticity by weaving in some stunningly personal confessions. On “It’s Funny” she holds her own with Slaughterhouse lyrical-heavyweight Joell Ortiz by combining standard MC braggadocio with personal confession:

“they cats try to see on the low / they tell they chicks they going to check a show, but it’s me that they checkin’ fo / then they tell me that they don’t want a wife / they want a life with a rapper chick, grass-is-greener shit, that’s why I’m celibate”

It’s lines like this that hint at what’s to come. After sharing mic-time with Rah Digga and Rage on “BBQ”, the tone shifts into Eternia’s signature introspective mode. Here’s where it gets tricky.  While basting the track with heartfelt soul and life experience has never been an issue, the restrictiveness of MoSS’ psuedo-live recording technique starts to become apparent. There are songs where it lifts E’s verses into the stratosphere, and there are also songs that end up becoming somewhat burdened by the delivery.

One example is the half-sibling dedication “The Half.” While the concept is refreshingly-original, MoSS’s wheezing synthesized organs and mid-tempo beat seem to clash with Eternia’s attitude-infused delivery. On the other hand, “To the Future” — an open letter to a hypothetical future husband — utilizes her newly-adopted heartfelt flow to breathe life into tales of sexual abuse and lost innocence:

“so I’d look for him in all the wrong faces / got used by more than one dude, in fact most of them were fakin’ / so when you talk about makin’ a life / I think about the two I killed already, it’s too late for me, right?”

Perhaps the most stand-out track comes as sort of a surprise. The alcoholic anthem, “Mr. Bacardi,” is backed by an uncharacteristic bluesy-bounce from MoSS, with Eternia taking on a swinging flow that she claims was inspired by Biggie’s “Warning.” Here her more humorous side comes out, and images of her spilling drinks on Erick Sermon and vomiting in bed with a stranger come off just as poignant as they are amusing.

For all her talent, Eternia still seems to be in the hunt for her one true breakout release. At Last is the closest she’s come to reaching that point. I say it’s only a matter of time before she finally gets there.

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