Band:	Eyes Of Fire
Album:	Ashes To Embers
Style:	Doom metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	March 23, 2004
A review by:	Malcolm

01. The End Result Is Falling?
02. Empty
03. Fly Away
04. Hopeless
05. Down
06. Fear
07. Breath
08. One More
09. Anyone
10. Shelter
11. Last Goodbye
12. Disintegrate [European bonus]

When I got this, I was expecting a Gothic release, somewhere in the land of Moonspell, Older Tiamat, or something close.
But what I got was something with the sound of Anathema, soft, mellow with a psychedelic feeling over it all. At least that what was I first thought after the first song started.
But when song two started, I don't know where to place them anymore.

Eyes of Fire were formed back in 1996 (as Shiva), by the driven force of the Death Metal act Mindrot, Dan Kaufman (Vocals, Guitar) & Matt Fish (Vocals, Bass), as a side project.
Sometime after the release of Mindrot's last effort "Soul" back in 1998, the drummer Evan Kilbourne left the band, Dan and Matt decided to retire Mindrot and give all for their new band.
Keyboardist Ben Smith and drummer John Haddad was recruited. (I guess that guitarist Petersen was in the band from the start).
As soon as the line-up was stabile, thy started to record demo songs and play a lot live.
An E.P. was recorded; "Disintegrate" that you can download from Century Media's homepage.
In 2001 they recorded an official demo that lead to a deal with Century Media.
Eyes of Fire was ready to record their debut in February 2003 and now, March 2004 we can hear the result on, "Ashes to Embers".

So here I have that album, and as I said, I'm not sure how I shall present it like.
It's to Deathly, to be Gothic, and it's so soft to be Death, very complex, I know.
But if I say, Softer Death sniffing Metal with touches of Gothic and some Hardcore elements, you think you'll understand then? No? Well, not me either.

As mention earlier, the first song reminds me of what I heard of Anathema, soft music with a psychedelic feeling, that if you read the lyrics, have the right elements around you, it will creep inside of you while playing+reading.
But that is also the only song in that way, all that follow have screamy vocals (except "Hopeless", might be the best track on the album, it's at least the easiest one to get stuck with).

In some songs you hear that Hardcore I was talking about, usual USA core if you ask me, with word like "Fuck" in, the song "Fear" is a good example, and the chorus of "One More" is another, now with the language, but with the Hardcore feeling.
None of those two have anything to do with the best of the album.

To sum it up, overall it's a good album, with an excellent sad feeling, sometimes, the hardcore they could have left home.
The production is very good, and the heaviness in some songs is just amazing.
But with more songs like "The End Result is Falling?" and "Hopeless" the score would have been much higher, that's for sure.
So please Dan and Matt, more of that for the next one, aye?

Favourite Songs: "The End Result is Falling?" and "Hopeless" is my absolute favourite, can't tell which one is the best.