Everyone has their guilty pleasures. You know, like eating pasta at 3 AM, or lurking in the subway, headset on and giving people the evil eye, or obsessing about white band t-shirts, or watching too many X factor auditions where everyone starts bursting into tears at the very end. You know you have them, in some form or another.
Eyes Of Verona, with their weirdly titled new release "Ex-Voto", a continuation of one of their previous EP's (which I haven't fully taken a grasp at as of yet), sets out to take the world by surprise with a mix of opera rock and catchy hooks that, if not for the explanation provided in the first paragraph, I wouldn't be caught dead listening to.
Because yes, these four lads and lady have put out just the type of music that is slowly morphing into a guilty pleasure of mine. With a first audition session that lasted about five consecutive listens (!!), this little album here has some subtleties that don't become apparent from the first minutes in. Lacking in any and all possible heaviness (if you can picture Evanescence as a 'metal' counterpart, however stupid that description may be, you'll get a feel for what's going on here), lacking in any memorable guitar solos, drum beats or bass lines, Ex-Voto relies exclusively on the vocal delivery of its front lady. Which in turn doesn't tackle you immediately, but rather upping the ante little by little, going from alternative rock to some underlying melancholic themes provided by the rhythm guitar, all of which culminates about two thirds in when everything is dropped, aside from an acoustic guitar that lays way for one of the best vocal melodies I have heard in recent years. More so, the register completely changes and I'm only left to think "Where the hell did that just come from?". 'My Odyssey' is the track and believe me, it WILL take you by surprise.
 |
| Young and on their way... |
What's even better is that the songs that follow also come to be of a higher caliber. 'The End of Babel' has got to have one of the most infectious choruses this side of Mars, with 'Hare and Hounds' being a purposely compressed arena anthem, while closers '86400' and the title track do right by adding just the right tinge of hopefulness to an otherwise bleak album, however apparently full of joy it would appear.
So yeah, my advice to you is to listen to this album from start to finish before making a quick judgement. It might appear silly or uninspired (especially the lyrics), but it has made this Tzeeeac member proud of being able to listen to it in advance (as it comes out today). Manly tears were shed!
Here's a track from their previous EP, take it with a grain of salt while you browse around for more of their stuff or wait for new online streams.
Listened to this myself, it's quite good and the production is stellar. I liked the electro bits.
ReplyDelete