Conor Fynes 'Through Emptiness' - Wall of the Eyeless (5/10)

As is the case with most demos, Wall of the Eyeless presents a fairly primordial soup of musical concepts that hints at their potential as a band, without ever actually reaching it. This two-piece from Sweden came together under some interesting circumstances; the driving force behind this band- known for our purposes as SL- is actually Russian, but came to Sweden to study. Meeting up with a drummer, "Through Emptiness" was born, a rough collage of ideas rooted somewhere in between melodic death and atmospheric doom metal. Even as demos nowadays go, "Through Emptiness" feels unpolished in most regards. However, there's a hint of great things to come in this band's music- in spite of the messy production and wandering compositions, "Through Emptiness" leaves an impression that we will be hearing bigger, better things from this band in no time at all.

Wall of the Eyeless have received some pretty enthusiastic responses for this demo, and I think this success lies in the variety of sounds and styles they are able to bring into the mix. Although the central ingredients are not dissimilar from anything you might find in a death metal record, there are plenty of surprises to keep an ear out for. Acoustic instrumentation and symphonic ambiance are both staples of "Through Emptiness". Although SL's chugging metal riffs take a bigger piece of the cake, the most positive impression I'm left with here points to Wall of the Eyeless' atmospheric inclination. Although it's very evident that Wall of the Eyeless have worked within a tight budget here, the mellow aspect of the band shines irregardless.

Ironically, it's the actual 'metal' element of Wall of the Eyeless that comes up short. SL is a decent growler and capable guitarist, but too often, the mid-paced riffs feel too simplistic, and the shred solos too unorganized to leave as marked an impression as does the atmospheric portion. Simon's drumming is much the same way; it is functional, if not impressive, keeping up a steady rhythm without going past the call of duty. Granted, like the production- which is weak and amateurish- these things are to be expected of a demo. Where I think Wall of the Eyeless disappoints most are the compositions. Although the demo is chock full of a surprising number of interesting ideas, none of the demo's four tracks feel particularly well put together. Ideas come and go, without doing much to advance the song as a whole. A possible exception to this rule is the closer and highlight, "The Rain Song". It shows the songwriting achieving a greater level of focus, following an atmospheric doom idea throughout the eight minutes. However, it too doesn't do a fair justice to some of its better ideas.

"Through Emptiness" has some great ideas, but they're not presented in the greatest light. Most of this can be attributed to the standard garble and roughness that comes with demo territory, but it would have been great to hear this band consolidate their ideas and push for something a little more focused. Wall of the Eyeless is a band with some great potential, but there is work yet to be done.

UMUR "Through Emptiness" is the debut demo by Swedish/Russian death/doom metal act Wall Of The Eyeless. The 4 track, 24:24 minutes long demo was released on the 31st of December 2011. It´s available in both digital and physical form from the band´s Bandcamp page.

The music on the demo is death/doom metal with a progressive edge. The progressive element is mostly because of the developing song structures and the light/dark effect of distorted parts and mellower acoustic guitar parts. Sounds like the description of Opeth right? But that´s actually pretty far from the truth as Wall Of The Eyeless have their own sound.

Bearing in mind the fact that the two guys in the band (SL (electric & acoustic guitars, bass and vocals) and Simon (drums)), have only played together for about a month before recording the 4 tracks on the 24:24 minutes long demo, there are some pretty strong musicianship on display. The drumming by Simon is solid and at times adventurous and SL delivers some really convincing growling vocals, a few clean shoegaze type vocals, skilled guitar playing and pretty good bass playing too.

Out of the 4 tracks on the demo I think the first three tracks "The Hands" (nice thrashy riffing on this one), "Do We Belong Here?" and "Wall of the Eyeless" (which features a riff that reminds me of an old Iron Maiden riff) are the most well composed and memorable songs while the closing track "The Rain Song" seems more fragmented to my ears and as a consequence not as memorable. The band are generally good at making transitions between sections work but there are a couple of places where the transitions are slightly awkward. I have no worrites though as exactly that issue is usually something that is solved with more composing experience.

The sound production is raw and pretty lo-fi but all details are audible and it´s obvious that Wall Of The Eyeless are two young guys loaded with great ideas for their songs. It´s always hard to give justice to a demo recording with a rating system that is primarily designed for studio releases backed up by labels, but for what it´s worth I think a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is deserved for an intriguing and promising demo. According to the band they are currently working on recording music in a "real" studio, so it´ll be exciting to see what they can produce the next time around.