Label: Who Music
Review by Davide Torresan
Eye Ra Haze is a New York-based band, and this “Eye Of The Storm” is their debut EP. The main feature of this group is the high female presence since 3 of the 5 members are women. And while in a band formed mostly by girls the guitarist is always a man, in Eye Ra Haze the roles are reversed: Nicole Papastavrou, in fact, definitely knows how to play her instrument. The genre proposed by this group is a progressive/alternative metal with a lot of influences, melodic but never boring. They reminded me of Flyleaf but, above all, Lacuna Coil. “Eye Of The Storm” starts with “New Beginning”, from which has been filmed a video. The song has a catchy melody though having a dark atmosphere. The voice of the singer Natasha Singer is mellow and hypnotic. With the central track, “Quiet Storm”, Eye Ra Haze changed a bit the sound since it begins with a slow bass line and the ethereal voice of Natasha which, a couple of times, reminded me the one of Bjork.
Guitar and drum enter the scene and Natasha’s voice becomes angrier giving to the song a captivating rhythm. Instead, “Warships” plays on contrasts: the passionate but obscure voice of the singer collides with a one more charming. The instrumental background has even some doom metal hints.
One of the reasons why I gave a high rating to this release is the sound quality. In fact the production of this EP has been entrusted to Chris “Zeuss” Harris, producer of bands like Killswitch Engage, Soulfly and Hatebreed. The will of highlighting the sound of each instruments combined with the undeniable talent of Eye Ra Haze‘s members does nothing but increase the expectations for the debut album. Keep an eye on them!
Rating – 78/100
Tracklist
- New Beginning
- Quiet Storm
- Warships
Line Up
- Natasha Singer – Vocals
- Nicole Papastavrou – Guitar
- Karine Catenacci – Keyboards
- Chris Marrone – Bass
- Kevin Corcoran – Drums