The Eyes Of A Traitor
A Clear Perception
6.9
In an attempt to investigate and subsequently run over with a half-track some other shades of metal that I adore much less than others, I scrambled through a list of names open to review and came across The Eyes of a Traitor. Seeing as no metalcore band nowadays can resist having less than three words in their name (including articles, prepositions and conjunctions), I immediately selected it, and though I had no ill will towards this record, let it be known that I did not hold out much hope for this U.K. five-piece.
"This can't be," I uttered, jaw agape, hands checking my head for signs of delirium or schizophrenia. Here is a band that applies technicality in hardcore with precise and sometimes overwhelming effect. I can't be pissed at these gents, because much of the material on A Clear Perception is good, light-hearted melodic metal that chokes up so high on the guitar neck for some noodling arpeggios I swore Michael Amott did session work for them. Come to think of it, you know who this sounds like? With Passion. That's With Passion if they didn't suck an incredible amount and made material as consistently good as "Train Wreck Orchestra." Sure, the lyrics are trite and hardcore-riffic ("If I don't speak, then how the fuck can you silence me?") and the clean vocals could use a little polish, but these boys may have churned out the most enjoyable deathcore album I've heard in a long time.
Here's the skinny: the guitarists are rapid-fire, sweeping and heavy on the shred, the drums throb and pulse in the sporadic, hefty fashion of Shai Hulud, and the vocals are a mixed bag of hollow bellows, the Jasta-esque jaunts and mirthful moans, as well as the aforementioned sub-par melodic vocals. Clean vocals aren't as big a setback to The Eyes of a Traitor as they are to, say, Cryptopsy, but they are a little distracting at times when the chords don't have enough oomph to carry the tune through what might've been exhausting, emotional passages. We can only hope Eyes vocalist Jack Delany gets a little practice in with his cleans before the next album drops.
A Clear Perception is a great CD for those convinced deathcore is an open/shut genre, and if anything, The Eyes of a Traitor are one band that makes me question aphoristic statements I've made in the past like "deathcore is gay." It's still not completely hetero, to be sure, but those Eyes boys are packing bigger and better than most of the competition in the field these days.
Not that Eyes should let the above statement get to their heads or anything.
