Eye of Solitude - Canto III
Canto III, the latest LP by England’s Eye of Solitude takes a bit of getting used to. Unlike their previous output, the band goes for a more varied approach this time around. While everything is still mostly in the realm of Atmospheric Doom/Death Metal, there are times that a faster and aggressive Death Metal style is used, which never seems to work as well. Eye of Solitude excels at slower, more melodic and atmospheric stuff. The speedier bits of this album are more of a hindrance than a help for a band like this. There is a segment in “Act I: Between Two Worlds (Occularis Infernum),” and also one in “Act II: Where the Descent Began,” where the drumming goes into blast mode. The drums are a bit too loud and artificial sounding, especially the bass drums, which have an unnatural tone and seem to be triggered. When Adriano Ferraro starts blasting away, he literally drowns out the two guitarists completely, reducing that part of the song to a blast beat drum solo. Obviously, this ruins the carefully crafted atmosphere, and when the large part of your appeal is the atmospheric element, that’s always bad. Thankfully, Eye of Solitude doesn’t do that kind of thing very often. Most of the time, the music is oppressively dark and depressing; feelings that the band is able to conjure up quickly and effectively. They’re so good at what they do that even with missteps like the blasting drums in the early part of the album, they’re able to recover almost immediately and hit back just as hard, if not harder. If you’re looking for dark and brutal Death Metal with tons of atmosphere, Eye of Solitude is a band that reliably delivers the goods. If you’re into bands like old My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost or Atmospheric Doom/Death in general, this LP should definitely be on your short list of releases to pick up.
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