Eyes of Fire reach to both ends of the emotional spectrum, but they never really succeed in perfecting either thoughtfulness or aggression. The quieter parts are probably supposed to be introspective, but most of the time, they just sound weak and whiny. This is mostly due to the vocalist, who sounds like he is trying to imitate Maynard James Keenan of Tool, but ends up sounding like a (slightly) melodic Fred Durst. Weak vocal delivery also plagues the heavier parts of the music, a few of which would actually be interesting on account of Gothenburg-worthy melodic guitar lines. The vocalist’s shouting sounds like a pathetic excuse for death-metal style vocals, or a hardcore kid who thinks he’s all tough or something. He needs to learn that yelling an asinine lyric over and over again won’t improve it.

If you can ignore the vocals and the sappy emotional digging, you might want to see what all the hype surrounding Eyes of Fire is about. But if you’re only after the doom or melodic death metal elements, just check out Swallow the Sun or Windfall and leave this one on the shelf.

written by Laura Walters

Playing time: 58.13