Astronaut Down
God's Eye
3.9
This review is going to be quick and relatively painless, which is ironic because God's Eye is a long, painful listen (all but two of the twelve tracks break five minutes, with a few at seven-plus minutes). Astronaut Down is an emo band with proggy/mathy tendencies and the occasional heavy, distorted riff. It sounds a little like I'm describing Coheed and Cambria right now, but I assure you, C&C are different and much more polished than Astronaut Down. These guys sound more like a strange combination of Sunny Day Real Estate, Dredg, and Tool as a very loose comparison. I'll admit this band is actually pretty talented in terms of knowing how to play their instruments, but the styles they are combining, the way they combine them, and their emo-ish vocalist completely undermine their talent. Add to this a demo-level production and we have ourselves a real stinker of an album.
The long, full-on prog instrumental "The Testing" is more than enough evidence to prove these fellas are a talented bunch, which makes the rest of the album all the more disappointing. And as much as I hate this album, I see potential. The band is definitely talented enough to make a record that sticks, but they really need to streamline their sound quite a bit, get a new vocalist or ditch the vocals completely, and secure a more professional recording in order to be taken seriously. The chops are there, but the polish and presentation are very disappointing.
