Devil Eyes have been carving their name into the underbelly of Montreal's rock scene since early 2006. Their self-titled full length album is the result of a year of experimentation with the DNA of garage, punk, noise, Japanese hardcore, swamp blues and psychedelia. The album is an intense collection, setting a restless and frenetic pace as they strip the songs down to the bone and deliver them raw on a charging freight train that burns through in just under 30 minutes. The 9 songs cover a lot of territory while turning riffs inside out, each song hooking you in different ways.
Opening with the rolling road movie desert rock of “Rip My Heart Out”, the album grows heavier and weirder through the huge Japanese garage/noise/punk centerpiece “Akuma Gyoshi” and the paranoid Beefheartian earworm of “Spookfish”. Instrumentals like “Noctilucent Ghost” and “Teeth” throws darts of weird modality into a heady churning blend of surf, slide garage and dissonant metal, featuring some snaky clarinet action. Later on in the mix comes a pounding shamanic epic tale of train robbery “Motorsnake”, which peaks quickly into a choir chanting over the wall of busted up drums and guitars and ukulele.
Matt, Emily and Zen respectively play guitar, bass and drums in Devil Eyes and they all sing. Their sound has been christened as Barrage Rock, Japanoise and Wrong Wave and the trio mixes up their own flavor of danceable punk but still check influences like Motorhead, Guitar Wolf, Hounddog Taylor, Comets on Fire, Les Rallizes Dénudés, Captain Beefheart, ESG and The Contortions. The fierce trio of rockers spent the last few years honing their sound together in the local scene, sharing the stage with the likes of Japan's Zoobombs, Bob Log III and their notorious performance at the Pop Montreal / Vice Magazine showcase with Dark Meat. The raw immediacy of their recorded tracks underline their live shows which have inspired both dance parties and moshpits, fried PA systems, demolished drum kits, and smashed, drilled and bullwhipped guitars. With every show, Devil Eyes pushes theirs and the audience's boundaries, sometimes ending in acts of destruction that can manifest in the cathartic conjuring party that is a Devil Eyes set.
The 7" is the first serving of the forthcoming slab of heaviness. Devil Eyes' first full-length, self-titled album will be released to the rock starved masses October 27th, 2009.
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