Seven Dark Eyes
Lost Dreams
6.7
Excuse me while I yawn. Let me get this straight, fellas...and lady. You all purposely recorded an introductory track for your DEMO? I don't know what your ball count is, but mine is exactly two. Maybe you all grew three (I can't comment on the female vocalist, as I don't know what her equivalent to this would be), because it would have to take more than two to not only devise but follow through on a plan to have your first introduction to a new audience be a nearly minute long intro track. Audiences of any kind typically have short attention spans, and nowhere does this rule apply greater than to new audiences. Take two fingers to your respective scrotums and de-ball yourselves, now. With that gripe out of my system, instrumentally the tracks following the aforementioned intro to Seven Dark Eyes' first demo Lost Dreams, are all rather solid. Logic would tell you that after a statement like that I might have a problem with the vocals, and you'd be correct. Not that singer Chiara Viel is horrible, but she sounds much less confident than who I am sure is her hero, Christina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil. As much as I hate to make the comparison, a group like this is asking for it. Italian gothic metal? Check. Lead female vocalist backed by a single male vocalist? Check. Viel doesn't take away from the group, but she certainly doesn't help it in any way. I can only hope that by the time Seven Dark Eyes produces a full length, the other members will encourage her to sound more confident and, perhaps, more aggressive. The guitar and drum sections aren't so slow that the vocalist must limit him or herself to spaghetti noodle soft singing. I wouldn't be picking on Viel so much if I didn't think that she had talent. One can tell by listening to the sound of her voice that she has that at the very least, but the fact that she doesn't assert herself with more chutzpah proves frustrating. This could either be, a) a product of my own sick mind or b) the band's difficulty with English, but I don't think that titling the first official song on your demo "Golden Flower" is a stellar idea. Ignoring yet another petty gripe, anyone into poppier gothic metal will like this track. You know the formula; repetitive, but catchy riffs accompanied by even catchier vocal work with not always easy to decipher lyrics but easier to decipher tunes that make for good humming. The first 20 seconds of the third track, "Mina's Lullaby," registered some excitement in my cynical heart. For a while there I thought I was going to hear some good old fashioned thrash. Alas, synth seeped its slithery little self into the mix and, like any picture taken of Dee Snider (yes, I am not above picking on him, too), ruined what was a perfect, albeit short orgasm. As a goth piece this lullaby works. I could easily see myself falling asleep to this, which speaks to both the enchanting aura and monotony of "Mina's Lullaby." Whoops, where was I? Oh yes, the fourth and final track. "Spirit of Stars." Here's where the band apparently puts its extra balls to work. Viel even provides some excellent vocals on what is truly the shining star of Seven Dark Eyes' demo. Again, the guitarists tease with a thrash riff for a while before trudging on to a mid-pacer, but this time it's more successful. I'd even go so far as to say that a song like this justifies the group's existence. Any comparison to Lacuna Coil in terms of this one track would be baseless. "Spirit of Stars" is less goth and more straight up rock than the earlier songs and the guitar work is actually in sync with Viel's vocals. If all I had to do was applaud one song and give the album a rave review then I would have quit writing this long ago, as I really want to like this group wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, tradition requires that I judge this demo as a whole, which leads me to the conclusion that, while Seven Dark Eyes do show a few attempts at originality, the group ultimately relegates itself to mediocrity by too strictly following the pop goth quota. Perhaps its first full length will contain as a whole the inspired work found on the last track of the demo, but something tells me that might in fact be one of many Lost Dreams.
