Eyes Fly - The Long Return
Eyes Fly dropped a potent EP, called The Long Return, very recently. This is formidable troglodyte doom at its best.
Eyes Fly
Remember Robert E. Howard’s Bran Mak Morn? Well, if Bran Mak Morn played in a band, it would sound like Eyes Fly – dominant, fierce, and crushing.
Eyes Fly formed in either 2015 or 2016, I’m not sure which, as there’s a disparity in the dates. In any event, Pete and Gareth hooked up at an all-day doom festival in Bristol, UK. Initially, Eyes Fly was just drums and guitar, an instrumental stoner/metal band. Later, Tom jumped aboard on bass, while vocalist Dean joined in 2018.
Gareth sums up the band’s musical philosophy: “We've got good taste in music and if we like what we create then other people will too. We play for us and if other people dig it then great, if not, sucks to be them.”
The Long Return contains four-tracks. First up is “The Dead, Living,” which opens on blazing riffs and lickety-split drums flowing into down-and-dirty weighty guitars atop a measured groove surging with thick doom flavors. I love Dean’s voice, rough and penetrating and, wonderfully, melodic. In other words, he avoids the banshee, demonic screaming/growling of much of current doom.
As the harmonics slowly build and swell with dark energy, the melody takes on muscular resonance billowing with hefty momentum.
“She Who Rode” starts off on gentle guitars, followed by the entry of Dean’s commanding voice, supple and slightly dreamy. As the harmonics slowly build and swell with dark energy, the melody takes on muscular resonance billowing with hefty momentum. Pete demonstrates his skill on his axe, investing the tune with scorching carefully controlled licks.
“Home Within” features thick, crunchy guitar riffs tuned at about drop F, way down low. The tune meanders on sinewy colors, as Dean’s soaring, vigorous tones glide with pungency bordering on elegance overhead. When the guitars heave forward, Dean’s tones assume rasping, ferocious timbres. A stabbing bridge introduces the music to nuclear intensity, deep, throbbing, and agonizing.
“Eyes Fly” opens on thick, dark tones, almost gentle but full of galvanizing gravitational pull. Dean’s voice delivers chanting aromas akin to religious mysticism. As the guitars wind up, gravelly tones suffuse both the harmonics and Dean’s electrifying voice, growling, grinding, and pulsating with harsh-textured energy.
The Long Return hits the center of your diaphragm like a freight train. Eyes Fly mousse the music up to Factor Five doom levels. This is a spectacular EP. Dean’s voice reminds me of Jim Morrison on steroids – powerful.
