Part of any success is down to grabbing attention and that is a quality the new album from French outfit Eyes Wide Shot certainly has. It offers a dynamic and rousing blend of alternative metal and melodic rock with many other varied strains involved too. Uniqueness is maybe a less obvious essence to Back From Hell but it and its ten captivating songs just grab ears and imagination leaving thick enjoyment behind.
Hailing from Jarny in the north-east of France and formed at the beginning of 2013, Eyes Wide Shot released their debut EP in their first year which helped firmly establish them in the local music scene. The following year saw the current line-up settled when drummer Anthony Marra linked up with vocalist Florent Curatola and guitarists Nicolas Menus and Kevin Guernane, further expanded since recording the album by bassist Jeremy Machado. Soon after Marra’s addition, the band came to the attention of producer Charles Kallaghan Massabo (Falling In Reverse) who subsequently flew to Los Angeles to record their debut album with them.
Back From Hell quickly commands ears and thoughts as its themes of life’s setbacks and obstacles, its manipulations and addictions, shadow songs which leap from the speakers with energy and enterprise. Heavy rhythms and hungry riffs collude with electronic revelry throughout; that mentioned fusion of rock and metal familiar yet unpredictable and ultimately always intriguing.
It all starts with Waiting In Vain and an instant confrontation of imposing sound and niggling riffs. Soon hitting a formidable stride still leaning heavily upon ears, the song lightens slightly for the potent tones of Curatola, his entrance aligned to inviting melodies and an infectiousness which lines every aspect of the proposition awakening ears. With an element of bands like Avenged Sevenfold to it, the anthemic roar of the track is a convincing persuasion as melodically imaginative as it is aggressively biting.
The following A Glimpse Of Me is a similarly textured offering, riffs and grooves a rapacious proposal with rhythms an even more irritable aggressor. Their attack though is tempered by the catchy prowess of vocals and harmonies and the warm melodies wrapping their proposal. Together it is an engaging invitation easy to get involved in as too that of My Redemption which initially seems very similar to its predecessor but soon shows a potent vein of electronic twists and anthemic tenacity in a body which wakes easy participation but keeps the imagination busy with its varied flavours from djent and technical metal to alternative and electro rock.
It is an excellent highlight within Back From Hell quickly emulated by the fiery smoulder of Lost For You, a track which simmers with a volatility given its head in a chorus which blazes without exploding. Its melancholic calms and melodic mists only add to the song’s beguiling presence though, a success in turn breached by both Lisp Off My Lips and the album’s title track. The first of the pair is another which may not have major originality on its side yet from its first moments to its last and especially in a chorus which seduces the passions, the increasingly tempestuous song creates a fixed bond with pleasure. Its successor shares crystalline electronic melodies as riffs grumble, slipping into mellow reflection before brewing an emotional intensity which in turn sparks a contagious swing to the song’s gait. It is a real grower becoming another big moment in the album over listens.
Another pinnacle to Back From Hell is the virulently catchy Under The Knife, a song which hits like an old friend and has body and voice enlisted in mere moments of its inescapable arousal. Melodic metal and rock in rampant collusion, the track is a boisterously fiery and anthemic encounter impregnated with suggestive tendrils of melody rich enterprise.
Both Living The Dream with its underling irritable volatility beneath emotive flames and the poppy aggression of See What I’ve Seen pile on the enjoyment, the second especially tempting before Watch Me closes the album off in fine style. The song is a proposition which it some ways should not work. It is bedlamic in a ‘messy’ way, certain textures from its first second crashing into each other rather than aligning seamlessly yet it all makes for exciting harmonic disarray around concussive antagonism which increasingly captures the imagination, rap styled twists only adding to the off kilter landscape.
Eyes Wide Shot is without doubt a band well worth taking time out to investigate. Their sound is yet to find bold uniqueness but as Back From Hell shows it demands attention while thickly satisfying; success easy to recommend.
Back From Hell is out now across many online stores and @ http://ewsband.bigcartel.com/product/back-from-hell
https://www.facebook.com/Eyeswideshotband/
Pete RingMaster 09/11/2016
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