Eye: live @ ReVolt festival 2002

Rewview by Gav Revolt

Having missed a majority of the bands its difficult for me to give reviews of all of them, thankfully we have recordings of eleven of the bands and ill be trying to review them all in turn. Im going to start with eye as i have not only have an audio recording of thier set, but also a video.

First off, its alway needs said, eye are not a band that will be to the taste of everyone. Their music is not of the meatheadeded, lets smash the fuck out of each other variety, instead their music is not just heavy, but for the most part is in fact very light and melodic. Another great part to them, is the keen attention Noddys paid to making the riffs memorable, hammered home by their repetition for sustained periods of time. Whereas others might find this boring, or perhaps even pretentious, i enjoy the hypnotic feel of them (possible due to my love of stoner/sludgy music).

Another clever element to eye, are the time changes used to throw people of the chase of what to expect from their songs. Using great build ups to a point of the listener expecting something really heavy, before disappearing off into another light melodic section, leaving the listener impressed.

Their ReVolt set started with the only remaining song from their debut gig in April of this year, clocking in at ten an a half minutes this is a shortened version from its original (around the 13 minute mark!) but you cant tell what parts have been taken out, mainly due to its highly repetitive nature. The second track focusses more on the lighter side of their music, with the bass sounding like Tool in places, but kicks back in around the 6 minute mark with a fantastically heavy riff, backed up by some superb drumming from Craig. The track not so much ends, but gradually fades out, quite a nice touch considering the overall feel of the song.

The last song of their set is eyes heaviest track yet, starting with a rather morbid riff, the next section sees craig at his most active for a sustained period as the drums thunder along all the way through. Hitting three minutes, it all goes light again, with some interesting bass sounds from Ross completely contrasting the other instruments. This section is essentially a long teased out build up to the end of the song, kicking in at almost 6 minutes and using some interesting chords and the drums returning to push the song on.

I havent mentioned the vocals, due for the most part in that there are very little in the compositions. The vocals included are used sparingly, meaning they dont detract anything from the music but rather augment and build on the existng foundations of the music.

If youre looking for a band that when theyre light, theyre very light, but when theyre heavy, theyre very heavy, then eye are a band you cant afford to miss.