EYE ~ OUT OF BODY ......... review

Faced with no information on a band's personnel, instrumentation or past history what is the humble reviewer/blogger to do? Well one option would be to make up something epic like this is a band whose members are the offspring of a coupling between men and Russian she-wolves and their instruments are made from the bones and guts of prey animals, or maybe we could say that they were political prisoners who formed a band while imprisoned in a Russian gulag/labour camp and after a daring escape are now  making music in the underground sewers of their home city. Trouble with that option is that there is a good chance the band in question will read this and Desert Psychlist will be looking down the wrong end of a law suit. The other option is just to tell it how it is and confess that Desert Psychlist knows nothing of this band other than they play exhilarating psychedelic stoner doom, that their name is EYE, they come from Murmansk, Russia and that they have an absolutely killer album now residing over on Bandcamp entitled "Out Of Body"

Droning effects and feedback introduce first track "Transformation" before things settle down and the band fall into a heavily psyched swirling doomic groove, which reveals something else about EYE that we didn't touch on in our intro piece, and that is they contain among their numbers a truly impressive vocalist. Strong of voice and with a slightly stilted, almost Germanic delivery she (for it is a she) battles hard to be heard over a huge wall of guitar fuelled fuzz and distortion, growling bass and thunderous percussion yet she succeeds magnificently and in doing so takes everything to another level. This level is maintained and at times exceeded as the band follow up "Transformation" with four more songs of swirling, swooping lysergic stonerized doom, the band adding eastern hues to "Out of Body", utilising male/female harmonised mantras,dual lead and traded vocals on the excellent "Moment Balans", going full on stoner on "Smoke Weed" then finishing in a blaze of gothic tinted doomic splendour with the spine-tingling and atmospheric "Circle of Suffering".

Heady, trippy, tinted in gothic hues and with an undercurrent of menace and brutality "Out of Body" is an album that mesmerises, mystifies and pummels all at the same time and if  EYE continue on their current path it may not be too long before we may actually find out who they are and what instruments they play.
Check 'em out …..

© 2018 Frazer Jones