Eidola - Eviscerate

2024-04-07 07:00:25

Few bands manage to be as chaotic and as focused at the same time Eidola to sound. The post-hardcore quintet from Utah around Andrew Wells, who also works with Dance Gavin Dance, loves the inscrutable and experimental, without forgetting about hooks. After the adverse circumstances surrounding the release of “The Architect”, the successor was intended to fulfill the US musicians’ thirst for research more than ever, accompanied by treatises on faith, psychology, loss, grief, hatred and despair. The now fifth studio album „Eviscerate“ actually dares to do a lot more.

A song like “No Weapon Formed Shall Prosper,” which was also chosen as the first video release, sums up the quintet’s old, new vigor. From the first second it’s full blast, with the psychotic guitars driving through your bones. Constant tension arises between brutal screams and catchy vocals, carried by Eidola’s nervous energy even in the calm middle section. The fact that immediately afterwards “Who Of You Will Persevere?” delivers thick, anthemic passages, stretching its arms towards the sky and yet repeatedly reaching violently, fits into the picture.

With its six and a half minutes, “Golgotha Compendium: Fifth Temple” presents all sorts of challenges and at the same time tests the band’s conceptual tendencies. Tangible conflict, rough hussar rides and spiritual interludes with piano accompaniment are actually in constant contradiction. It takes a few listens to get to grips with this track, only for it to become impossible to get out of your head. The stark opposite is called “Fistful Of Hornets” and packs pretty much everything that Eidola is about in two and a half minutes. The fact that, despite all the chaos and blast action, a real catchy chorus pushes to the forefront is entertaining. But the Beatesque of “A Bridge Of Iron And Blood” with its demanding neo-prog middle section also deserves attention – a fresh and yet so familiar facet.

It actually gets a bit more crazy and crazy, as Eidola show with increasing enthusiasm. The 13 songs on her new album are closely interwoven, held together by intros, outros and interludes, at times a bit strange and confusing, at the next moment – even in the midst of the greatest experimentalism – so clear, so stirring and so comprehensible. The contradiction of “Eviscerate” mutates into an art form that constantly breaks with post-hardcore expectations, spits out larger-than-life choruses, only to spit out brutal core action and djent-like staccato attacks a short time later. Of course, all of this takes a while to come together into a big whole. Of course, it’s worth being patient, because once again the sum of the chaotic individual parts will turn your head – a little surprise bag that you’ll love working on.

Rating: 8/10

Available from: April 12, 2024
Available via: Blue Swan Records / Rise Records

Facebook: www.facebook.com/eidolaUT