Eye Of The Destroyer – “Starved and Hanging” [EP] [Album Review]

Starved and Hanging is Eye Of The Destroyer’s fifth release since 2014; a release schedule this intense happily marries with the band’s extreme sound. It’s hard to pigeonhole exactly what subgenre of metal Eye Of The Destroyer falls under, however, thanks to an eclectic mix of sounds presented on their latest EP, we are given glimpses of deathcore, moments of slam metal, and the vocal delivery of death metal. Starving and Hanging is rather mad – which shouldn’t come as a surprise from a band who have such a hectic release schedule and are renowned for partying hard.

The guys come at you hard, never letting up, forcing you into submission. There are just four relatively short tracks on offer here, each one with something slightly different from the last, but all uncompromisingly heavy. “Starved and Hanging”, for example, is slow, chugging and altogether chunkier than the rest of the EP. “Crushed Between Earth and Bone” opens with a lengthy pig-squeal – something that acts as it means to go on. This is an unapologetically dark and brutal EP.

The music is, generally speaking, all well and good, but there is little meat on these bones. Sure, there are elements from the likes of deathcore, slam and death metal, but there is little experimentation beyond this. There isn’t a face-melting guitar solo to be heard, the riffs aren’t particularly catchy, and there is very little in the way of atmospherics. Each track becomes a little bogged down in repetition. Starved and Hanging is straight up brutal but without any frills.

Overall, the EP is decent, mixing a selection of the more extreme subgenres of metal together rather well, but the sound is unfortunately a little one-dimensional. I would have loved a little more experimentation from the band, with a rip-roaring guitar solo or two, just to make the whole thing more likely to stick in the memory.

Starved and Hanging Track Listing:

01. Obsessed with Death
02. Crushed Between Earth and Bone
03. Starved and Hanging
04. Mandatory Bludgeoning

Run Time: 10:47
Release Date: February 2, 2018

Check out the band’s “Starved and Hanging” lyric video here.