Eyes Of Fire - Ashes To Embers
Rating
RIYL
DownCorrosion of Conformity
Katatonia
Opeth
Anathema
Label
Century MediaTracklist
1. The End Result of Falling...2. Empty
3. Fly Away
4. Hopeless
5. Down
6. Fear
7. Breathe
8. One More
9. Anyone
10. Shelter
11. Last Goodbye
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Multiple personality disorder. It’s such a weird thing. You have one person that is constantly switching personas. Each persona is different than the other, sometimes possessing common traits, but not often. The different personalities are also never present at the same time, so the person is stuck shifting from person to person somewhat disjointedly. It would be very odd to be afflicted with this disorder, if you ask me. What’s interesting is that not only do people develop this disorder, but so do bands, with Eyes of Fire being a perfect example.
On their 11 song, 53 minute offering entitled “Ashes to Embers”, Eyes of Fire manage to swing back and forth between Tool-ish, Anathema-inspired, prog-metal songs and Down or Corrosion of Conformity styled “dirty” grunge-metal. There is really no middle ground between these two styles on their disc. I wouldn’t have much of a problem with this if both styles were good, but unfortunately only one is presentable.
The grunge-metal songs, which comprise most of the 3-4 minute tunes on this disc, are all pretty good. They are brutal in their presentation, with guttural growls for vocals and a strong, heavy guitar section to complement it. The drums also hammer away making it a very brutal experience. There is the occasional melodic vocal passage tossed in, but not very often. “Empty” is a perfect example of this formula in action as it starts out with a pummeling guitar riff, then the vocals come out full force rocking out until you hit the halfway point of the song where there is a slow, melodic lull for a bit, and then they kick you with a final passage of groove-laden metal.
The other side of the coin, the meandering prog-metal, is less palatable. These songs will drag on for 6, 7, or even 8 minutes. I’m usually a fan of prog-metal, but in Eyes of Fire’s case, they just can’t pull it off. All they manage to do is plod along at a slow pace and bore me. There isn’t anything interesting about what they are doing. It’s like they took their normal sound and slowed it down to a crawl. It’s too bad because their sound isn’t suited for doing that type of maneuver. What is fortunate, however, is that they don’t indulge in this style of playing too often. If they had put out an entire disc of doom-metal, I would have been bored to tears.
As it is, though, most of the cd is made up of a good dosage of roaring, distorted metal. This disc is a good offering for the Katatonia or COC crowd, but if you don’t enjoy that style of music, this disc probably won’t work for you.
--Rick Gebhardt
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