Down the street, in a garage, a sonic protuberance is waiting to penetrate your feeble mind. Generally music occupies a wide frequency spectrum; especially fancy major label recordings. Devil Eyes acknowledges the spectrum and declines most of its necessity. “Who needs slight cymbal splashes at 21khz?†No one. A bastion of fuzz, Devil Eyes compresses and condenses rock and roll to its fundamental quality. Noise. Sounds like shoving popcorn down some poor bastards snorkel.
The album features two instrumental tracks, “Noctilucent Ghost†and “Teethâ€. The former elicits, for lack of a better reference, a Dick Dale on acid vibe with a clarinet solo. The latter features a great guitar riff soaked in bacon fat and squeezed into a lamb intestine… mmm, rock and roll sausage. Highly satisfying.
The golden egg on the album is “Akuma Gyoshiâ€. With fuzz, let’s face it, distortion that pretty much dominates all that is and ever will be, this slack jawed yokel is inspired by the mix, which boldly smashes the guitars as far forward as they can go (and a little further) until space and time collapse. The lyrics, I assume, are in Japanese, which doesn’t really matter. The abomination just keeps churning for nearly 6 minutes, nearly combusting, but finishing strong.
The album takes a stylistic turn with “Motorsnakeâ€, an acoustic shoegazer with nods to Tom Wait’s Bone Machine and any given Brian Jonestown Massacre death trip. There is nothing quite like highly processed guitars and squealing feedback to send shivers down your tingly bone.
Devil Eyes’ understand lo-fi guitar tone, high energy and sonic grease. Looking through plastic peepers at the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift, the world needs more eyes this evil.
Devil Eyes: Rip My Heart Out [mp3]
[audio:091228-devil_eyes-rip_my_heart_out.mp3|titles=Rip My Heart Out|artists=Devil Eyes]
Signed By Force [CD, 2009]
1. Rip My Heart Out
2. Noctilucent Ghost
3. Freak Pocket
4. Akuma Gyoshi
5. Hung
6. Spookfish
7. Teeth
8. Motorsnake
9. Stache Burn
Outstanding review Tyler! Given time, I think I’d enjoy this album as much as I enjoy Jeff The Brotherhood, which is to say I’d enjoy it a whole hell of a lot.