XISFOREYES

Listed as an ‘innovative death core crew’, Newcastle’s 5 piece XisForEyes are an interesting little find in the UK metal scene. ‘The Sermon’ comes crawling in with an eerie intro that wouldn’t be amiss on an old school game like ‘DOOM’ before the drums come thundering in with sledgehammer precision. Whilst Luke Moffat’s vocals may not be anything groundbreaking and new, they are guttural in all the right places and the passion behind the words is made obvious. Keyboard samples running through the background of this song allow their more symphonic elements to reign supreme, influences from Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir are made clear. Cutting guitar rhythms blast ‘Ubiquitous Deterrent’ in, Philip Archbold and Alex Baillie display some clean and technical riffs as the ripping vocals layer above. This song rings of Job For A Cowboy, especially with Kory Aitchison’s drumming practically kicking the track violently through every second. ‘The Ark’ shows the type of refined guitar work many ‘death core’ bands dream about, before dropping it down into a thundering pace. Fast bass work on this track from Ant Nicholson keeps the flow thundering along with a Necrophagist style flourish. ‘Telos’ is full of sheer thunderous beats, and it’s the kind of song you could imagine yourself being punched in the face along to at one of their shows. To finish it all off, ‘The Crow Road’, a fantastic display of just what this band are capable of it terms of, and I hate to use this word, ‘brutality’ - but it sums it up perfectly. This 5 track-EP is a pretty incredible offering and definitely puts XisForEyes up in the stakes of bands to look out for in 2011.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Self-released

EP

INSIDIOUS EXISTENTIALISM

Review by Siobhan Hogarty

RUNNING TIME:

19:49

RELEASE DATE:

25th April 2011

TRACK LISTING

1) The Sermon
2) Ubiquitous Deterrent
3) The Ark
4) Telos
5) The Crow Road

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

UK

"...a pretty incredible offering and definitely puts XisForEyes up in the stakes of bands to look out for in 2011."