Customer Reviews

Through the Eyes of the Dead (Malice)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of those CD's that stays in your player a month after getting it in the mail. The first thing that blew me away about this CD was the drummer's double bass: this guy makes his double bass parts sound like fifty machine guns going off at the same time. The overall sound on this one is also five star material all the way. You can hear everything, the way it was meant to be. I don't care how many people say that bands that are more raw sounding are better. If you want to be able to hear everything going on then grab this. Goatwhore's, Haunting Curse, is another example of that. The vocals here can match intensity with all the other instruments. On Bloodlust these guys were finding their sound; on Malice they found it and it's kicking a** and taking names. If this isn't in your metal collection, you're missing out big time.

If you enjoyed any of the older material, you'll certainly love "Malice" as well. After listening to the first few tracks, the record struck me as being death metal with a heavy groove to the sound. I wouldn't even call this "metalcore." The riffs and few "breakdowns" are more in tune with a death metal feel than most metalcore. The drumming is very double bass oriented, the vocals are provided courtesy of Nate (formerly of Premonitions of War) and production duties were handled by Erik Rutan (ex-Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal). Add these together and it makes for a crisp, killer album! Definitely shocked and suprised me to hear the difference and forward movement of this release compared to the last one. Just straight up heavy from the first track on.. I'm not much for reviews, but thats my opinion!

After hearing this band's last effort, "Bloodlust", I was left a bit underwhelmed. The band was obviously talented, but seemed to lack coherency and direction. A year or two later, and they return with the ferocious and unrelenting "Malice", and I stand corrected.

Through The Eyes Of The Dead are, for some reason, often lumped in with the "metalcore" scene, which isn't really accurate at all. You'll get no Killswitch/Underoath here. What you will get, however, is chops-heavy, super-technical and super-aggressive death metal with bizarre, convoluted riffing to spare and a crystal-clear, roof-raising production. The only criticism I could possibly level against this excellent disc is that the death vocals are at first a bit abrasive at times. Overall though, very satisfying, and a gigantic improvement over their previous full-length. Very heavy, very nihilistic. Recommended for fans of Suffocation, Job For A Cowboy, Decapitated, et al.

Through the eyes of the dead is back! and back with a vengeance with malice this album has sick riffs and brutal drumming throughout, and the vocals are insane. their debut album bloodlust was one of my favorites for the time being but this.... this puts it on top for me i can't wait for the third album from these guys this is just brutal!

Two years later and minus four of the members who helped create "Bloodlust," Through The Eyes Of The Dead is back with their second full length and their brand of death-metal meets hardcore.

Is anything that different this time around? Well not really. Unfortunately that is a downside of this genre. However that doesn't at all mean its not good. TTEOTD have been playing this style of music for around 5 years now, so it can be assumed that have a grasp on the right way to write a song. "Malice" is no different from its predecessor in terms of heaviness. In fact this time around with the introduction of so many new members (including their new drummer who is absolutely mind blowing) the band is actually much better off in terms of musical ability.

"Malice" opens with the blazing "Failure In The Flesh" which will leave any former of fans of the band feeling right at home. Amazingly technical guitar and drum work, unrelenting bass patterns and uncompromising vocals are still all key elements to the bands sound. Whereas "Bloodlust" leaned leaned a little more towards the metalcore side of the spectrum (although there was a healthy amount of death metal in the sound) "Malice" is much more of a death metal record. So if you prefer that end of the spectrum more than -core end, you'll probably be very pleased with this album. Every song is a full on assault of aggression, and right when you think you've got time to catch your breath, TTEOTD will knock you right back to the ground. Tracks like "As Good As Dead" and "To The Ruins" go straight for the jugular with their fierce breakdowns and dark lyrics and it's almost hard to imagine the band can take their sound to a heavier and more extreme spectrum, yet they accomplish that with songs like the title track and "To Wage A War." If you're a fan of this band, you'll get it. It's heavy.

Any complaints? Well the only one I really have with the record is pertaining to the new vocalist Nate, formerly of Premonitions of War. It's not really a complaint, more of a quirk. Nate's vocals are extremely, EXTREMELY monotone on this record. This is partly because he uses nothing but deep bellows almost the entire time. I guess since this album sounds much more death metal, maybe the band thought that the vocals would sound better that way. But after about 7 tracks of hearing Nate keep his vocal chords down in the depths of hell, it starts to get a bit tiring. A strong range is usually a good thing to have in Death Metal (think of Eddie's work on the latest All Shall Perish album) and Nate does have plenty of range (as anyone who has listened to Dead Water Drowning, one of his former bands should know) he just doesn't choose to use it. A lot of people hated Anthony's vocals, but I almost say I preferred them more just because they were more diverse. It probably won't stop you from listening to the record, but it might keep you from finishing it if you don't have a high tolerance for the style. Hopefully they'll fix this a bit the next time around.

All issues aside, "Malice" is what it was expected to be: A solid, technical death-metal/hardcore record. It has plenty of heavy and interesting tracks (the four mentioned above are by far the stand outs) and anyone who has been listening to these guys over the past few years will have no problem diving right into it. It might not top their previous material, but it will surely give your eyes a solid pounding for around 40 minutes.

I will keep this short and sweet. Put all doubts to side, Nate is a great replacement for former vocalist Anthony. Although his range might not be as diverse, but his voice suits the style well. Guitarists Chris Anderson (no longer with the band) and Justin Longshore did a good job and varying the riffing from track to track. Drummer Josh Kulick is amazing as always and probibly gives the best performance of any of the members on this record.


In closing, although TTEOTD haven't done anyting original with this release, this is deffenitly a solid effort which you will no doubt like if you liked the first full-length or are a fan of the genera. 4 Stars.

The music on this cd is very tight. Very much like Hate Eternal (Rutan) however, too much like them. to me it sounds identical. The singer is terrible. If they stuck with the same singer from "bloodlust" it would be worth listening to. I wouldn't recomend "malice".

I am a fan of TTEOTD. I love their previous CD and their EP. Some of the heavier music I have heard. Makes me want to punt a baby. But what the hell were they thinking when they recorded this and heard this new vocalist. He is god awful. I actually laughed a bit when I heard the single for the first time. After laughing I got pretty pissed because I realized I had never seen them live...and I will not go see them live if this jackass is singing. He is horrendous. It sounds like a joke almost. Did they get this guy off that Cartoon Network show Metalocalypse? Lose this dude. Get Gunnells back. This grunting putz will get you no where.

Having read the reviews for "Through the Eyes of the Dead" I thought I was going to be getting some death Metal that was in the realms of Incantation, Morbid Angel, Suffocation, or Decapitated. Seeing the video for the "Failure in the Flesh" made me laugh as these guys arent even close to death metal. Its metalcore with a bit of a twist, but its over-hyped and not even close to be technical or progressive. Some decent double bass work, ok guitar work, but the lead singer has go to go. I tried downloading this, thinking it might get better. It doesnt, it remains somewhat stale, yet the vocalist is god-awful. If he wasnt screaming and belting and whining like he was in some wanna be Metalcore band, then this might show some hope. Otherwise, if you are looking for technical death metal, keep looking. You wont find it here.