EYES OF THE LIVING – War On Dead – More Dead

EYES OF THE LIVING - War On Dead - More Dead
  • 5.9/10
    EYES OF THE LIVING - War On Dead - More Dead - 5.9/10
5.9/10

Summary

Label: Pavement Music
Release date: March 15, 2019

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7.75/10 (2 votes)

Since its inception in 2016, the Philadelphia Metal quartet Eyes Of The Living have released two albums. The more recent one by them titled War On Dead – More Dead is surely one of those things fans of heavy music from across the world had been waiting for in a while. It certainly is a very impressive album – because not many bands decide to put fifteen tracks on their second record. Even though some of those tracks are interludes and outro (as the title suggest), that is still about an hour’s worth of decent music. All those who prefer groove and punchiness over melody are in for a very exciting experience. Here are Eyes Of The Living with their album War On Dead – More Dead!

Despite being really heavy, the riffs in the songs are quite catchy. They’re not particularly complex or neck-wringing fast, but there is a groove to them. Especially the guitar harmonies in the second half of the opening song titled “Count The Days” are really captivating. Eerie and sinister, a perfect combination! The album has a really heavy sound to it in general, although some of the bass riffs would have probably sounded better if played an octave higher – sadly the bass line is barely audible in the first verse of the opening track. One thing that’s really well done is the guitar solos. Just like the riffs, they’re rather simple, it doesn’t take a Jeff Loomis or Marty Friedman to pull them off, but they suit the rest of the music really well. Another interesting feature of the songs on War On Dead – More Dead are the breakdowns, like the one in the fourth track “Hell On Earth.” It sounds a fair bit like the one in “Head Crusher” from Megadeth’s Endgame.

The album features two interludes: “Interlude – Aftermath” and “Interlude – They Got Rick,” is the fifth and ninth track respectively. If anyone had doubts about the lyrics of all songs on the album being about a zombie apocalypse, the title of the ninth track should disperse all doubts.

Interestingly enough, the tracks after the second interlude are significantly different from the rest of the album. It’s not only the extensive use of synths, but there’s also some power to those songs and that’s what makes them even better than the previous ones. Maybe it’s the overall slightly Punk sound these songs, like for instance the twelfth track “What Is Left For The Dead”, have to them. The next song “Survival” is probably the most interesting song on this record. No, it is not about tight riffs or perfect solos. It’s about the Metal groove one can get carried away by easily, not necessarily having had any psychoactive substances beforehand. Although this song might initially come across as unfinished as if there was something missing there, after a couple of listens it becomes quite an earworm. It is a shame that the nearer the end gets, the better the songs get as “Dawn,” which is the last song before the outro is really great despite the slightly Nu Metal sound to it. The clean guitar parts could make one think of “Enter Sandman” by Metallica.

War On Dead – More Dead is certainly a good album. Considering how Eyes Of The Living has not even been around for half a decade, their creative output so far is surely impressive. These guys certainly do not lazy around and most likely no one will at their shows – because some of the songs mentioned above sound about perfect to mosh to.

Author

  • Miłosz Mikołaj Nizioł

    Miłosz is a reviewer here at Metal Express Radio. He was born somewhere in Europe and now lives elsewhere in Europe. Miłosz is a writer and it has always been his passion. Aside from that, Miłosz is also a bass player - back in his UK days he played in various bands, some of which made it to have their place in the history of Metal; this includes an English high speed Thrash Metal act Rager that got mentioned in Contract in Blood: A History Of UK Thrash Metal (Glasper, I., 2018).   When enjoying live music as a member of the audience, Milosz never says no to circle pits and a good wall of death. Besides Metal, Milosz has a very wide range of interests that don't need to be specified here since they're not about Metal. One of them can be, actually: Milosz LOVES coming up with parodies of various songs lyrics.   Milosz's Top 25 bands (in the following order) are: The Beatles Deep Purple & Black Sabbath Queen ]v[ E G A D E T ]-[ (until 24.05.2021, but still) Judas Priest Iron Maiden (first three albums mostly) Twisted Sister Mötley Crüe KISS (preferably with Ace and Peter) Exodus Overkill Pantera Rainbow (and DIO of course) Savatage Running Wild Testament Pink Floyd ABBA Red Hot Chili Peppers Death Dire Straits Alestorm Motörhead

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