Congratulations.
Congrats to Danish Blackened Post-Hardcore outfit EYES who have just released their new full-length on Indisciplinarian, their third in the last five years, if one counts their eponymous release from 2018 as a full-length. Once again they serve straight-forward, powerful Hardcore which has that certain sense of singularity only adherent to the really imposing and impressive bands from that genre.
Kudos for showing how one can achieve a sound that is steady and never monotonous, really shifty but not never chaotic, heavy but not braggingly muscular. This band might be something for all those who would like Sick of It All with a tinge more variability, but who do not want to listen to the umpteenth version of noisy Math-Core in the DEP-vein. For those who would like LLNN a bit warmer but at the same time think that Wolves in the Throne Room are somewhat too moody. A band that is able to get all these things right, surely deserves a lot of attention, because, well, they are a great example of what “Thinking Man’s Hardcore” might be after The Wave and all those Math-Core impostors.
Respect to the must be heaped upon the guitar players Rasmus Furbo and Søren Bomand because they have creating some really noteworthy song structures that are simple, clever and effective. Simple because they will stick in your ear tunnels very quickly, but the two also deliver some really good background noises and effective for you will want to listen to them again and again. An example for this trinity of purposes is ”The City” a raging revengeful punch against the town you once loved and the process it underwent between then and now, whether it may be unlimited decay or sparkling gentrification.
Praise where praise is justified – here for a clear state of the world address, with people being divided more and more, encapsulated in their little bubbles from which only a few step back and try to see the bigger picture as this process surely hurts. EYES try to hurt us with the truth. Which truth? The one which opens your eyes (sorry, pun intended) to the fact that we are basically the first generation with less resources and thus opportunities than the ones before. The first one who needs to clean up the bullshit of those who proceeded it and who has to do so while at the same time thinking about those who will come after us.
Laurels to a band that shows us all of that and simultaneously tries to give us song of self-analysis and introspect. They might do so a lot less obvious than on Underperformer, the album before, but it is still there in tracks like ”Tearjerker”, a very clear statement of despair because of said state of the world, or ”Ballast”, which basically gives us a mirror and asks how we can still hold our head up high in the face of our own optimism and idealism having left us for bad because of all these man-made problems.
Awards shall rain for the title track which might be one of the most sarcastic tracks about our current state of affairs, because how shall we basically be proud of ourselves and our little successes when we do not have any idea on how to solve the real problems, the once that really matter. The ones which question our morals and values, ideals and politics and generally – our humanity. This is Hardcore for 2023. This is what the world deserves. Not more.
Congratulations on Congratulations
