Garden of Eyes – Altar of Despair – Demo (2020)
England
Cryptic Blood Records
Garden
of Eyes is a one-man manifestation spawned from the depths of
Nordwich, England, with sole member Nattskog handling all instruments
on its latest demo, “Altar of Despair.” Personally, I always like
to check out new death metal bands from the UK, even though the
amount of quality death metal from over there may not always be in
abundance, but the few that manage to pop up on my radar never fail
to impress me. Garden of Eyes utilizes the Swedish axe tone, but
what makes them a bit different is their varied use of tempos, and
the fact that the music is mostly slow, evil and excruciatingly
heavy, paired with a cavernous vocal assault that sounds like it was
spewed from the mouth of some hideous ghoul. The band refers to their
music as “Rotten Eldritch Death Metal” and the description
couldn't be more spot on. Programmed drums can be a hit or miss, but are well done in this case, adding a heavy dynamic to the music. The atmosphere on this release is absolutely morose and makes me think of being lost in some underground catacomb filled with all things decayed. The three songs on “Altar of Despair”
offers a tasty 12 minutes of pure charnel, unholy death metal that is
bound to raise a few dead souls every time you press play. (HT)