(Andy Synn finds himself far from alienated by the new album from Eye Eater)
It’s always been fascinating to me how different ears, on different people, can hear something different – whether subtly or strikingly – when listening to the same thing.
Case in point, a quick peruse of the listener reviews on the Bandcamp page for enigmatic New Zealand extremists Eye Eater will reveal a number of different descriptions of the band’s music, from “Progressive Death Metal” to “Blackened Death Metal” to “Dissonant Death Doom”.
And while, to a greater or lesser extent, I can understand where these listeners are coming from, what’s really interesting to me is what they’re not saying… which is that it would be just as valid to make references to “Deathcore” and “Tech Death” when it comes to the band’s gloom-heavy, crushingly claustrophobic, and hauntingly atmospheric blend of styles and genres.
Sure, there’ll be some people who honestly don’t hear these elements/influences, simply due to where/how they instinctively draw the line between genres – categorical perception is a hell of a thing – but, equally, the fact is that terms like “Progressive Death Metal” and “Blackened Death Metal” are simply seen as more “respectable” than the other, more “modern” terms I’ve just mentioned.
And yet Alienate clearly – to my ears at least – owes just as much to the likes of Black Tongue and Humanity’s Last Breath as it does Ulcerate and Meshuggah, with moments like the choppy rhythmic climax of the impressive opening title-track, the massive, down-tuned chords and chiming harmonics of “To Wish Death Upon Us All”, and the elasticated riffs and pneumatic percussive patterns which dominate the second half of “Failure Artefacts”, all exemplifying the band’s cutting edge (if not entirely unique) fusion of styles and influences.
But while the heaviness and aggression levels are frequently pushed into the red – the gargantuan guitars and gatling-gun blastbeats of “Alienate” and “Everything You Fear and Hope For” showcasing the lethal precision of the band’s devastating delivery – it’s actually the group’s more melodic digressions (such as the technical twists and proggy tones of “Other Planets”) and frequent use of atmosphere-enhancing negative space (give “Glyphs” a listen for a prime example, although there are similarly moody moments scattered throughout the album) which turn out to be the most important aspect of the band’s darkly dynamic sound.
Sure, there’s a few minor missteps (“Teachings of the Insentient”, for example, feels like the seed of something greater that hasn’t been given the space/time to properly bloom, while closer “Silence of the Forgotten” similarly seems like a missed opportunity to create something truly epic for the album’s finale), but barring the revelation of something wholly unpalatable about the band (that they enjoy drowning puppies in their spare time, perhaps, or… even worse… they like to put pineapple on their pizza) this will very likely make my “Personal Top Ten” come the end of the year, that’s how deeply it’s got its hooks into me.