:: The Eyes Of A Traitor - A Clear Perception

The Eyes Of A Traitor

Metalcore is still alive and well, and to prove the point, French underground label Listenable Records’ latest signing comes in the form of UK based outfit The Eyes Of A Traitor. Despite the underwhelming feeling I had with their debut five track E.P. ‘By Sunset’ from 2007, and developing a strong dislike to metalcore in general, I was willing to give the band the benefit of the doubt and greet their debut full-length effort ‘A Clear Perception’ with an open mind.
And while I enjoyed the debut offering from the relatively young five piece act, I couldn’t shake the feeling that ‘A Clear Perception’ still fell well short of making any real sort of impact on me. Sure, there’s more than enough technical proficiency from the dual guitarists, and front man Delany has one hell of a varied range, which gives the band plenty of variation to the standard melodic death metal/metalcore slop that’s continually dished out from a million other acts dwelling within the same genre. But if The Eyes Of A Traitor have one major flaw, it would have to be their inability to write songs that truly break free of the typically clichéd melodic death metal/metalcore formula. The rather short and melodic instrumental title track ‘A Clear Perception’ and the opening track ‘Under Siege’ do see the band successfully transcending the tried and true formula, but it’s certainly not enough to disguise the fact that ‘A Clear Perception’ is very much a run of the mill sort of release. There’s more than a hint of potential heard within the ten tracks on ‘A Clear Perception’, and I think given time The Eyes Of A Traitor may just be capable of creating something really interesting. But until there’s conclusive proof that they have actually achieved such a feat, I’ll hold off from calling them the next big thing to emerge from the metalcore scene since Bring Me The Horizon.