Review by Felix on September 8, 2022.

Due to the kind character of our editor (the review was originally written for Metalegion.com), we can choose the titles we want to review from an endless excel list. Eyes Of The Living was listed as a thrash band, but honestly, one needs a broad interpretation of this term to agree with this classification. If we neglect the useless, pretty psychedelic weltschmerz parts in 'No Name For Doom', the quartet meanders through the territories of At War (without Motörhead vibes), Pro-Pain, and a lot of faceless bands that wallow in mid-tempo songs. Too bad that Eyes Of The Living lack the dirty charm of the aforementioned combat units – and unfortunately this is not the only thing I am missing.

Admittedly, their music sounds flawlessly produced, very clean, very modern – and absolutely soulless, as much as I regret it. This is a pity, because some lines and a few riffs reach a solid level. However, one element is more or less completely missing. The basic elixir of thrash, I mean sharp, cutting thrash riffs, driven by an overdose of energy, do not show up. Instead, I listen to pretty boring hardcore shouts, too many mid-tempo parts and a lead singer who cannot be called the king of charisma (politely expressed). All in all, some songs are simply terrible. 'Hell To Pay' has absolutely nothing to offer, but this downer does not characterize the album. Acceptable, heavily stomping tunes, neither very enjoyable nor annoying, shape this work. Fear Comes Knocking is a collection of songs that seem to originate from the brain of men who suffer from an identity crisis, because they show a band that does not really know what it wants to stand for. The up-tempo beginning of 'Feeding The Wolves' is promising, but somehow the dudes are not able to raise the full potential of the song’s basic idea. More generally speaking, this is a fundamental problem of the album: some tracks have a nice, menacing undertone, but the band is mostly not able to suck honey from this situation.

It is therefore almost a bad joke that precisely the coherent, robust closer 'Breaking Within' marks the (only) highlight of the album. It is cleverly constructed and reveals its full strength after the first minute. However, this is no “must have” work and this is a real problem in a world with ten metal releases each day. That must be worrying for Eyes Of The Living, because this is already their third album. Honestly speaking, I'm afraid it's not going to work out.

Rating: 4.8 out of 10

Review by Fernando on April 29, 2024.

I’ve been talking a lot about Finnish black metal, and that country’s particular style of black metal has certainly had an impact on modern black metal as a whole. And today we have the case of a supergroup of sorts, but in reality, this is the project of multi-instrumentalist LHR, the current drummer of Horna and a host of other bands, and most of them with his brother Spellgoth, who once again, joins his brother with their fellow Horna bandmate Infection, and current Behexen guitarist (and one of the pioneers of the Nidrosian black metal scene in Norway) Wraath, who all joined forces to bring Night Shall Drape Us and it’s debut album Lunatic Choir through Season Of Mist.

From that list of well-regarded and seasoned black metal veterans, you can obviously have high expectations, but it should be noted this is LRH’s brainchild, as he writes, performs and records all the music and instruments himself, whilst the rest of the core line-up provides the vocals and lyrics, however they are also gearing up to play live with an additional session guitarist rounding the line-up. At any rate, since this is a Finnish affair, does it mean you can expect some classic Finn black metal? Not exactly, while the band do display the same level of melodicism and shar rock hooks most expect from Finnish black metal, but LHR isn’t just rehashing the music from the past or the various projects he’s been a part of, the music here definitely has a classic black metal influence, but the project is also forward facing, from the production to the sound, this is a modern black metal record but it’s modern in a good way, furthermore LHR and the shared vocals of Wraath, Infection and Spellgoth also take the music down a ritualistic road which completes the entire experience, not just with their growling vocals but also their choir and clean vocals, additionally each vocalist takes the lead in the track their best suited and it works perfectly without ever feeling disjointed or as if they were fighting for space.

Technically speaking this is an insanely well crafted record, LHR is of course an excellent drummer but hearing all his talents in every other instrument, specially guitar and bass which he rarely if ever gets to play, his guitar riffing in particular is on par with the guitar play of Jon Nödtveidt or Infernus, switching from fast aggressive riffs, to bending strings, and more complex and dynamic picking and melodies, it’s downright breathtaking, and as a whole, it doesn’t sound like a single person did all of the instruments but it is. Furthermore the compositions are kept concise and are all evenly paced, with a meaty 40 minute runtime, the record wastes no time at all, and it goes by quickly. My one critique though is that it maybe goes by a bit too fast for my liking, and since the music has a very definitive sound of ritualistic and melodic black metal, near the end it can feel a bit one note, but by no means is it monotonous, as LHR very wisely crafted this record in a way where you get various musical twists and turns that will leave you satisfied but doesn’t overindulge himself.

As a whole this is an excellent display of a truly talented artist performing at a peak and with extra help from killer vocalists, and while I was left wanting more due to my own preferences, I still look forward to whatever comes next for this project and it’s also my favorite type of black metal in the sense that it has all the hallmarks of classic black metal, but has just enough polish to serve as a gateway album to the more extreme corners of the subgenre.

Rating: 8 out of 10