Artist: Before Their Eyes
Album: Untouchable
Label: Rise Records
Purchase: iTunes
Release Date: March 9th, 2010
Overall: 8.0
Music: 8.0
Lyrics: 8.5
Production: 8.0
For the many people that know who Before Their Eyes are, there are plenty more that have never heard them before. The band has just released their third album entitled Untouchable, and it seems now more then ever, are looking to find more people to listen to them and become fans.
The main difference that kept Before Their Eyes from reaching that pinnacle of success and exposure has always been a lack of one extremely catchy song. Their past albums have been solid, but didn’t have that extra push of a special song that would hook people in immediately. This album has one in the form of “Sing To Me”, which has a very catchy rising chorus and airy harmonies to round it all out. This song would be a perfect start to hear from this band, and could find its place on radio fairly easily.
Untouchable’s first half is also different for the band, with less focus on the screaming side of their sound. While the band has always been able to, and still can incorporate screaming with regular singing, they can pull off one without the other quite well. “Love Is Misery” and “Start With Today” are both examples of how well they can do this, as they lay off the chunkier side of their music.
When they do rock though, Before Their Eyes are very good at what they do. Amongst the monster guitar riff in the middle of “My Match, Your Fire” and the growls of “Hell Or High Water”, one could equate them to the crunchy hardcore of Cancer Bats. That is until they break out into falsetto melodies where they set themselves apart from the rest (“Rick Vs Nick” shows off the back and forth of melodies and screaming to a T).
Before Their Eyes have taken their sound to a new place, where they can experience success while still remaining true to their original sound. They are a band that can shred with the toughest, while still pen a charmingly sweet ballad (“Start With Today”). While the melodies can sometimes be to nasally, and they aren’t necessarily reinventing their genre, there is more good then bad which makes this a pretty strong affair.