Formed in 2004 by sisters Alexia & Anissa Rodriquez, Eyes Set To Kill are a 5 piece Screamo fueled band from the desert of Tempe, Arizona. Anissa handles the bass chores, while sister Alexia's duties are vocals, lead guitar & piano and are rounded out by Brandon Anderson (keys), drummer Caleb Clifton and guitarist Greg Kerwin. Eyes Set To Kill's new CD, Reach, uses Alexia's pristine clean vocals with annoying Nu-Screamo vocals over the top on just about every other vocal verse, while all badly under the disguise of some sort of laughably made up Goth muse.
Reach doesn't seem to go anywhere and just plods along with unmemorable songs and sub par musical performances. I will give them some credit for their use of piano interludes throughout the CD, but their Pop type melodies around a Hardcore/Screamo aggressive delivery falls a bit short. Their lyrical expression of teenaged angst, loneliness, and rebellion may speak to this generation of kids, but provides nothing new. The highlight, if any, would be the tender vocals from Alexia Rodriquez, but her fairy- like vocal styling's are easily ruined with the sub par counterpoint screams at every chance they get to in fuse them. Is it necessary to reiterate every vocal verse with a bad counter scream?
Musically, Eyes Set To Kill are fairly solid without ever really being on the cusp of being creative or interesting. Their use of back up screaming adds nothing to the songs and really just misses the point, and with it being used so often, the abusive sounding tool becomes rather annoying. Overall, Reach is a CD that might find a home with kids that like their Metal to have no point or direction. And judging by what a lot of kids these days call good, this could be right up their alley.
Track Listing
- Intro
- Song 2
- Reach
- Darling
- Violent Kiss
- Young Blood Spills Tonight
- When We Started
- Into The Night
- Give You My All
- Liar In The Glass
- Only Holding On
- Behind These Eyes