Van Lovin'
The debut album from Shield Your Eyes is available on the Run For Your Life label. Shield Your Eyes …. Run For Your Life … are we supposed to be understanding something from all this? While all the “imminent danger” adjectives may be coincidental, they are an entirely appropriate way of opening my review of this excitable and talented band. Opening track “Nicola Vella Burrows” outlines their volatile modus operandi, displaying their heritage as descendants of screamo, while being wildly experimental at the same time. The loosened springs on the guitar give a chaotic and slightly off key edge to songs which bounce from moment to moment, while also being a versatile tool adding depth and fire.
On early listens it is true that it is quite hard to keep up with what the fuck is actually going on with this album, but once you have listened to songs like “Come On Melissa, Are You A Kisser ?” a few times, you start to see that all the little fragments go together to make a quite a melodic whole. This melodic sensibility is combined with almost euphoric playing on the parts of all three musicians to create a noisy but decidedly upbeat record. The whoops and shouts that occasionally crop up in the background tell me that this album was recorded in the best possible way, with all three members playing together in the same place at the same time, and if they’re enjoying it this much it would seem rude to not have just as much fun listening to it as a consumer.
- rawk
There is so much energy and talent on display on this album that it makes me wonder if it is possible for them to sustain themselves, or if they would, like so many bands, disappear under the weight of expectation. This has yet to be proved one way or another but I think that the strong songwriting apparent in tracks like “Sound The Alarm” and “I Wish I Could See You More” can sustain this band through the early adrenaline rush, and on to a career that could see them achieving a great deal.
Daddytank
Checkout the bands MySpace here, for gigs and updates.
