Review Summary: Blind Eyes Bleed mostly comes out as a boring, lackluster debut with the Industrial aspects being too overpowering.
This past decade has seen influential metal acts coming out of Montreal, including Despised Icon, Ion Dissonance, and Cryptopsy. Synastry is looking to be added to that list with their own take of Death Metal. Having formed in 2005, this band has risen to fame quickly. After touring relentlessly through Canada, the band started gaining increased exposure on the web and radio throughout North America and Europe. After only two years, the band signed with Year of the Sun records in winter 2007.
Blind Eyes Bleed was produced by Ex-Slaves On Dope guitarist Kevin Jardine. Is this band on the verge of being added to the above list or are they just another generic band that will be lost in the shuffle?
Synastry’s main goal as a band is to be an innovative Death Metal band by adding an industrial edge to the framework. This is obvious as you listen though the album. Almost every track on the album has some sort of industrial touch to it. The intro track “
Intro” is an industrial influenced track that adds guitars, and later drums, to the mix. The only other instance where the industrial aspect works is during the intro on “
This Man Grows Colder”. The latter should be what Synastry should aim for as far as their industrial aspect goes. The rest of the industrial aspects either get annoying after awhile, "
As The Dust Settles", or takes away from the song.
Now we can focus on the vocals and Jimmy Anastasopoulous. Jimmy usually just belts out his growls and most of the time they just come off as monotone and boring. There are instances in which the backing vocals seem to have been layered; however, this could have been done much more effectively. Jimmy does not sound that great when he stops and goes when he belts some of his lyrics. The listener is graced with some great cleaner vocals on some tracks, while the vocal part in the middle of "
This Man Grows Colder" is good and pulled off really well. The vocal delivery on "
Psychological Constructs" is easily the highlight of the non-guest vocalist songs.
Speaking of the two guest vocalists, they were Johan Liiva (founding vocalist of Arch Enemy) and Alissa White Gluz (The Agonist). Johan Liiva was on the track “
Visions of Anger”, and while the song is not that great; Johan does lend a bit of “oomph” into the song. Alissa White Gluz, who is one of my favorite female metal vocalists, is on the “ballad” of the album, “
In Your Eyes”. The song starts with her voice harmonizing. Jimmy then comes in whisper singing most of his lines in the song. Her voice fits really well into the song although it feels she is holding back trying not to outshine Jimmy until near the end when she belts out her growls.
The guitarist of Synastry is Pavel Ikonomov. The guitars really do not try to stand out on many songs, including “
Precious Time Bomb”. While the guitars rarely go clean, they do benefit from the clean parts they have. This includes the clean whiny guitar riff during the chorus of “
Pallets of My New World” and the nice change of pace clean guitar at the end of "
Psychological Constructs". There is some nice fretting on the song “
Beast of Myself” and some chugging guitars on "
To Catch a Glimpse". As far as Garen Vartivarian and his base are concerned, he really does not come out of the drum’s shadow except on the song "
Within Dreams".
The Drummer Kegham Kesserian is the last piece of the puzzle. While Kegham is not utilized as much as a drummer could be, he has great potential with Synastry. Kegham has two drum fills, one each, on the songs "
Pallets of My New World" and "
Psychological Constructs". He also has a drum oriented instrumental break during “
As The Dust Settles”. Kegham’s double bass is very prominent on the album while his snare drums are used nicely on “
Beast of Myself”.
Synastry has tried to be different from most bands in the Death Metal genre, but they have fallen short.
Blind Eyes Bleed mostly comes out as a boring, lackluster debut with the Industrial aspects being too overpowering. The Industrial spin would work better if they would turn it down some. The vocalist will greatly benefit with more years in the band and touring. Jimmy would then gain much needed experience, practice to perfect his vocal style, and gain a wider range. The best and most energetic part of this disc is the last four songs.
2.5/5
