SarosHungry Eye Records is a label that was spawned from Dan over at Mad At The World Records, this label will cater to the bands that MATWR, a label that puts out mostly older hardcore stuff, could not.
This four piece hails half from the Bay Area of California, which is rich and deep in history of thrash and metal, after all many of the pioneers of said genres were spawned from that region, while the other half is from the east coast. Prior to receiving this album I had never heard a peep about this band, after doing some brief research I've manage to find out they put out a demo back in 2004. Some of the songs from the demo can be found at Myspace.com/Saros as well as the track "Collapse of the Tower" which is on this EP. Not to take anything away from the other musicians in the band but the driving force in the band is Leila Rauf, who plays guitar and handles the vocal duties. Usually women get looked down upon in the music scene if they are the vocalist, not always for the right reason so it's nice to see a woman who can not only shred but lay down one hell of a vocal performance.
They have concocted one hell of a sound that pulls influences from various forms of metal; thrash, black, older death metal. Even some progressive rock moments come into play in certain sections. The band have obviously put in the time on their respective instruments before crafting this wonderfully epic 5 song album because these guys fucking shred. Even though it is only 5 songs, this is more than enough content to be considered a full length. Each of the songs paints a picture and tells a story while they run their dizzying course, which ranges between 5 and 12 minutes long. The solos on this album are a fucking blazing and usually you can find two real good ones in each track. All of the instruments hold down their respective areas, but I wish the bassist did something to stand out more, don't get me wrong the rhythm section is tight as hell but I would've liked to hear a bass lead or something considering what these guys are doing.
These lyrics are downright ugly yet beautiful at the same time, I love it. They paint such a stark image in your head of a far away landscape. I won't be able to do these lyrics justice so check this shit out: "You have poisoned the all the colors of the sun. To think like you in your short sight. Soon you will feel the hand of death. Creeping upon your life. Futility of control: a difficult lesson to learn. You have become the tower, revealing in fiendish mass. Lies built the tower: a monument to bastard lives. Back to the tower, silent torturer, blind to your disease. Wolves on the mountain, call me back, bring me away. To the mortal path's end I must turn, as the heavens will burn. Collapse of the tower, sacred mission, blessed serenity. Back to the tower, freedom fighter, the last believer. Collapse of the tower, demon presence, health degraded, ossified. Back to the tower, silent torturer, blind to your disease. Broken hands cry as the kingdom dies. All the traps sprung, nothing remains. Its peak will only mark its death. Crumbling away, hour by hour..."-"Collapse Of The Tower"
The production is alright, there are a lot of good things yet bad things about the recording and mastering. I love the guitar tone it sounds great, lots of eerie reverb but it over shadows EVERYTHING else in the mix. Even though the vocals sound extremely distant in the mix, I like the mood they create with the reverb. The bass tone is alright but I wish it was more articulated in the mix, it does little in terms of adding to the recording. The thing that bothered me the most were the drums. If there was one thing that should've never had reverb added to it, it'd be the drums. At the end of the day, I would love to hear this get re-recorded.
I'm not really huge on the layout for this one. Considering what images this album conjures up in my head, the layout does little to give me a graphic representation. The front cover shows a young girl who is blindfolded and holding up two branches which have two flowers tied to them and five icicles hanging. The inside of the booklet is pretty lifeless, it is just the lyrics displayed plainly in white times new roman text. As lackluster as the booklet is, the tray art is even more so. The back is pretty much black and white with the song titles, if you look closely there is a picture of the band in the background. While it's not terrible, they could've done a lot more with it.
Rating: 3/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: Collapse Of The Tower
Thesis: In terms of lyrical and musical content this album kills it, however the layout and production were lackluster in my opinion. If it were not for those two hinderances this album probably would've scored a 4.5. This isn't going to be for everyone but if you listen to any metal you should definitely enjoy this, so check out their myspace, if you're into it, show some support to a small label and pick this up.