UMUR "Sharpening Our Blades on the Mainstream" is an EP release by Italian death metal act Eyeconoslast. The EP was released in February 2011 by Downfall Records. The band have released a string of demos between 2003 and 2005 and their debut full-length studio album "Unassigned Death Chapter" in 2008, so "Sharpening Our Blades on the Mainstream" is the band´s 2nd "official" release.

The EP features 3 tracks distributed over 12:28 minutes so it would be fair to say that "Sharpening Our Blades on the Mainstream" isn´t a very long release. What you don´t get in quantity you get in spades in quality though. This is simply kickass high energetic death metal. We´re talking melodic death metal but not of the sweet and polished kind. The music on the EP is rather of a more raw melodic death metal style with technical riffing, great rythmic variation and aggressive death/thrash growls/sneers. Over the course of just 3 tracks Eyeconoslast more than convince me of their qualities. They are not only skilled musicians but also great songwriters. They make transitions between sections sound like it´s piece of cake while other similar sounding artists struggle not to sound awkward when they change pace or go from a melodic section to a harder edged one. So it´s safe to say that Eyeconoslast feature the whole package.

It´s not everyday a 3 track EP convinces me of a band´s qualities as successfully as "Sharpening Our Blades on the Mainstream" and that achivement deserves a 4 star rating. I find the EP recommendable to fans of fast, relentlessly energetic and aggressive melodic death metal without too much polish.