EYES – Spinner | Album Review

Who said concept albums were only meant for progressive metal albums that go beyond the one-hour mark? Danish hardcore troupe EYES take us through a world heavily inspired by manga author Asano Inio

On their latest album Spinner, Danish chaotic hardcore five-piece EYES approach their latest work as though it were a self-contained original retro anime, where each track equals to a different episode, with its own themes and characters inspired by personal experiences of the band, mostly vocalist and lyricist Victor Kaas.

As Spinner boots up to the sound of a retro opening jingle in Japanese, once the first “proper” track, ‘Better’ kicks off. Listeners are sucked into a ceaselessly churning spiral of chaos for the next twenty-four minutes as EYES shriek, yell, riff and pummel their way through this highly stylized exercise of putting their own impactful personal experiences under the microscope in an attempt to try and make sense of it all.

Heavily inspired by dark, semi-realistic and cynical coming-of-age mangas such as Goodnight Punpun and Dead Dead Demon’s De De De Deconstruction by mangaka Asano Inio, Spinner approaches topics ranging from childhood trauma to coming to grasps with the burden of responsibility growing up and the unforgiving nature of life itself.

EYES had already built a reputation for their high-energy abrasive sound with a slightly deadpan attitude to hammer in the cynical nihilism scattered throughout the various subjects they choose to approach, but Spinner is perhaps the most unrelenting EYES have ever sounded so far, leaving listeners little to no chance to catch a breath and find their bearings.

Throughout the record there seems to be a musical leitmotif that sonically illustrates the idea behind the album’s concept as well as its artwork, and that is guitarist’s Rasmus Furbo and Søren Bomand’s frantic, sliding dissonant riffs that perfectly capture this idea of being thrown into a dizzying maelstrom of various short scenes of life through these “spinning” riffs. EYES had previously introduced these types of riffs on their previous album Congratulations, but they turn them into a central aspect of their sound on this new release.

Musically, Spinner also feels more like a seamless intersecting point of hardcore, noise rock and mathcore lightly coated in sludge and blackened hardcore influences, whereas previous releases leaned more heavily on the noise rock side of things.

‘The Captain’, following the explosive rapid-fire burst of energy that is ‘Better’ and featuring an excellent guest vocal feature from Selma Bahner (Feral Nature) is the first track of the album to properly introduce the range of influences and sub-genres EYES are putting forwards on this new record while also introducing the “spinning riffs”, that only get crazier as the album rolls on, as shown by dizzying follow-up track ‘Deflating Rooms’.

‘Beelzebub, the Hypocrite’ takes a more straightforward, grounded approach, shining some light on the low-end provided by Kenn Bendtsen and how efficient Victor’s vocals can be over a breakdown while loosing none of the previously established frenzied dissonance. It also includes a reversed version of its midway verse. With the track itself being the album’s midway point, it is a nice little conceptual nod regarding the album’s spiralling theme and its cyclical nature.

“The spiral staircase to hell is never-ending”

Spinner’s second guest feature on ‘Save Face On A Regular Basis’ is a treat to any fan of sludgy noise-rock as KEN Mode‘s Jesse Matthewson makes a menacing vocal appearance during the song’s breakdown section, making it quite the powerhouse of a track when paired with Victor’s gnarly style of vocal delivery.

As Spinner ‘s frantic pace moves on, the Every Time I Die reminiscent ‘Moving Day For the Overton Window’ begs for “the spinning” to stop, whereas the punky double-time drumming of Simon Djurhuus on ‘Clown’ presents the band lashing out in frustration when faced with the chaotic and unsatisfactory turn of life events :

“Everything moves

Everything but me

Nothing is stable

No one stays”

Concluding with its eponymous track, which fittingly enough contains perhaps one of the best “spinning riffs” of the album, Spinner surprisingly leaves the listener on a somewhat uplifting note and a strong statement ; embracing the chaos of life and whatever it can throw your way, both the good and the bad, while you can still experience any and all of it for what it’s worth:

“I won’t move a muscle after I’m gone

Until then I will spin out and into oblivion”

On Spinner, EYES successfully commit to their ambitious conceptual vision and effortlessly pull in listeners along for a short but tumultuous trip, riding along the ceaseless, confusing spin of life in all of its chaos at break-neck speed, striving to make peace with it and accepting it for what it is, expressing fury, frustration, confusion and exorcising past traumas along the way.

Having newly signed to Prosthetic Records for this release, hopefully this will translate into more opportunities for EYES to bring their furious brand of chaotic hardcore across Europe and beyond. Expect a rowdy tent for their set at ArcTanGent later this summer, as these new tracks are sure to cause a ruckus in a live setting!