Eyes Wide Open – Through Life and Death
Release Date: 12th November 2021
Label: Arising Empire
Pre-Order/Pre-Save
Genre: Metalcore, Melodic Death Metal.
FFO: The Unguided, Ember Falls, Orbit Culture.
Review By: The Demented Raven
Swedish quartet, Eyes Wide Open, tackle every demon of the mind with this new album, Through Life and Death.
The album begins with World of Fire. An intro track with an ominous vibe, capturing the despair of the current state of the planet. Then things take a more electric approach, but it doesn’t sound out of place. Devastation begins not how you’d expect, which is interesting. We are introduced with brass and a string section, as well as the band themselves. It really grips you as you’re curious to know what’s going to happen next. However, the chorus is pretty generic as far as choruses go for bands of this genre, but it’s a catchy number none of the less.
Fallout is a quicker tempo, changing up the pace, so it’s not repetitive. It’s not bad but still incredibly predictable within the bridges & chorus. On the plus side, the vocals by Erik Engstrand remind me the likes of Anders from In Flames, which ain’t a bad thing, and the brief solo by Kristofer was definitely better than the previous, as it was more suited to the vocal chants.
We fade into Burn ’em with some good ol’ gang vocals. Erik takes a more melodic vocal approach on this track, which gives the track a more uplifting feel. It has a lot going on, but I feel overall this track is one of the more interesting cuts of the album.
Through Life & Death starts off with some engaging ideas but when the band kick in, rhythmically, it sounds a lot like Devastation. More gang vocals are also on tap, and I’m starting to get the feeling we’re in for a heavy Imagine Dragons.
Thankfully we don’t need the Eraser yet because this song went into a more epic direction with that whirlwind of an introduction. Just when I thought this band were running out of ideas, they unleash this track. You can really feel Erik’s emotion in the chorus, but to be honest, every element of the song is delivered extremely well. A definite highlight of the album for sure.
Brother gives off As I Lay Dying & Children of Bodom vibes, which is a combination I never thought I’d ever put together, but there we go. Wildfire also gives off “this sounds familiar” vibes, but with a good solo offered up by Kristofer.
Echoes is a collaborative effect with from Richard Sjunnesson and Jonathan Thorpenber from the band The Unguided. I expected a little more here to be honest, but sadly, it’s fairly underwhelming.
Where Death Meet Paradise is a much more mellow affair compared to the rest of the album, which gives off Leave out all the Rest (Linkin Park) similarities – an unusual comparison, yet a very welcome one. The build into something heavier towards the end of the track was a nice touch.
The album is then concluded with an acoustic guitar piece, Bridge To The Future, which rounds it all off nicely.
All in all, I can hear this band do have a lot of potential. Great vocals, good musicianship, and it’s all mixed and mastered very well. However, their sound isn’t anything I haven’t heard before, and many of the ideas here have been done to death by countless bands before them. It’s incredibly frustrating, as tracks like Eraser show that they are more than capable of unleashing something original. 
(3 / 5)
