Eye Beyond Sight
The Sun and the Flood

Slovakian metal bands isn’t amongst the most usual we receive in our mailbox here at Hallowed, Eye Beyond Sight might be our first if I am not forgetting one band somewhere amongst the many we have reviewed so far. There is not really much said about this album or band in the press information but what I do get to know is that this is their second album, one that alludes to a good day photographing in some calm silent beautiful place. But they are not that, rather compared with Sepultura in the reviews I have found and those reviews were not overly positive, rather pointing towards something average. I do not like the cover art though, it looks quite ugly if I am honest.

They are by the label described as thrash or groove with a little touch of death metal, and sure that is an okay description I would say. The Sepultura description seems quite alright as they sound a bit like that, heavy, slow and chewing on in a robust fashion with a singer trying to sound like a demon. But immediately when I listen to this album I hear a problem, they need to find an own identity, something that identifies them as who they are and not who they sound like. It feels like they do not have a shred of identity which of course is not true but they way they make music it feels like it. The ten tracks does not show much of a variation and when it ends 46 minutes after it starts it feels like it still remains at the start of the album.

I don’t know but listening to this album I find myself very bored and begins thinking up things I’d rather do than listen, like wash my car, polish my computer screen or something like that. This means that it is not so bad that I want to drill a whole in my head while eating an anaconda which has just eaten a baby crocodile seasoned with salt and pepper on a restaurant in northern California, it is not that bad just bad imagination. I think this boredom comes from the album and band being too much focused on making music that has inspired them rather than coming up with something of their own. They do know how to make music and they can create a variation on a theme, what they need now is to create a theme of their own which they can create variations on. But sure, if you do like groove metal with a bit of an extreme touch you will probably enjoy this album, and enjoy it a lot.

All in all this is an okay album but you could hardly call it imaginative or clever but well made and well produced, nothing is really wrong with it but as I stated before I think this band needs to find an own identity. If you don’t care about music being an individual statement of a band or anything like that and enjoy something with the thrash or groove labelling should probably look this album up. For the rest of us I am sure there are better things to spend money on, but nonetheless it is a decent album just not very imaginative.