Review & Full Album Premiere: Red Eye, Tales From the Days of Yore
[Click play above to stream Red Eye’s Tales from the Days of Yore in its entirety. Album is out Feb. 22 on Alone Records.]
Spanish four-piece Red Eye give some credit to the history and natural environs of their home in Antequera, Spain, in helping them conjure their sound, and that may well be true. What the consideration of the karsts — limestone formations jutting from the earth; you would see one and say, “oh so that’s what those things are called!” — and centuries of culture don’t necessarily account for is the skillful hand with which the double-guitar outfit blend influences from modern and classic doom together to create the amalgam of their Alone Records debut album, Tales from the Days of Yore. It is a substantial work even when not considering its 51-minute runtime across just six tracks, but with largesse of tone tying it together and a songwriting modus that draws at any moment from Pallbearer on “Azathoth” or Pentagram on “BHC” or Sleep on opener “Encounter,” Red Eye — the lineup of guitarist/vocalists Pablo Terol and Antonio Campos, bassist Antonio Muriel and drummer Ángel Arcas — dig into epic vibes on “Hall of the Slain,” engage a psychedelic sludge on “Yagé” and plod out in mammoth style on closer “Waves” before the semi-hidden track “Halcyon Rhythms” closes out with folkish acoustics and flute.
The question there, of course, is where were the folkish acoustics and flute hiding for the rest of the album, but there it’s important to remember Tales from the Days of Yore is Red Eye‘s first album, and while their accomplishments throughout are significant, this may just be the beginning of a larger progression. Maybe next time, more flutes and acoustics. In the interim, it’s not like the preceding stretches of Tales from the Days of Yore are lacking anything for fullness of sound. “Encounter” serves notice early as the opener and longest track (immediate points) by beginning with a fading-in swell of distortion-drenched guitar, and it’s a full minute before the drums join. Soon enough, the drudge is underway, and Red Eye cast their lot in a nodding rhythm and focus around that central riff, one guitar dropping to feedback before the throaty first verse begins. The immediate touchstone is earlier Sleep, but in its second half, the rumble fades from “Encounter” and quiet guitars intertwine for a stretch to build back up to a full-blown solo and last riff-out, so immediately, Red Eye refuse to be beholden to one single impulse in songwriting. That only continues to serve them well throughout the rest of what follows.
Both Terol and Campos would seem to contribute vocals to the verses of “BHC” — the acronym standing for “Black Horse Carriage” — and the shift in approach from the opener is palpable even as the tempo remains on the slower end and a lumbering groove continues to hold sway. Some of the underlying swing in the chorus seems to tip a hat to Elephant Tree‘s sense of melody, but just before the midpoint again, “BHC” drops to atmospherics. Backward guitar, other noise and general drift take the fore until the bass — or very low guitar — picks back up to introduce the solo-topped section that closes out. One might expect them to return to the hook, which is arguably the strongest on the album, but instead they crash into a fadeout ahead of “Azathoth,” a more active stomp and (single) melodic vocal echoing out over the likewise mournful riffing until, indeed, a midpoint break brings them down to a subdued stretch of mood-setting. This time, subtle tom hits hold the tension and when they return, it’s not to a solo, but huge riffing and compressed-sounding semi-spoken vocal declarations — the righteousness palpable — but sweeping guitar leads the way out nonetheless, the three first tracks diverse in their approach but united in structure.
Time for a change, and “Hall of the Slain” is it. A faster tempo, a more prevalent Sabbathian swing and a catchy chorus make the early going of “Hall of the Slain” a jolt of energy well placed to continue to expand the band’s horizons, and they change the structure as well, going quiet in the first half quickly to tease a longer break to come. It’s a minute difference, but a difference all the same, and the contrast it sets up with the impressive tonal plunder on the other end isn’t to be understated. Vocals become chanting incantations in the midsection and the quiet stint — could use some flute, maybe? — heralds the return to the song’s central instrumental figure. There are no more vocals, but the repetition in the second half of “Hall of the Slain” works well to set up “Yagé” which starts off with airy psychedelic guitar and gradually makes its way forward for the first three minutes-plus, the patient linear build ably making the turn to full-tonality sound organic. While they’ve incorporated different influences all along, “Yagé” is as far into alternate structuring as Red Eye have thus far gone on Tales from the Days of Yore, and the shift suits them, a last verse ending with a shout and faster riffing taking hold momentarily as a solo seems to call back to the song’s beginning in an effective bookend.
That leaves “Waves” as the finale, and there’s no way it’s anything but. At about five and a half minutes, it’s a somewhat scaled-down summary of what Red Eye have done throughout, bringing together various ideas and loud/quiet tradeoffs, but the level of plod is upped in such a way that it couldn’t be anything but the conclusion, and very likely the band knew that even as they were writing it. It crashes to a somewhat unceremonious end, but “Halcyon Days” takes hold shortly thereafter, carrying the next several minutes with classic prog flair in a flute-led jam met with percussion and strummed guitar, ending with some conversation and laughing. For a band who already has room in their songs for such things, it would seem only natural to combine this apparent underlying influence with the heft they otherwise bring forth — hard to pull off live in the studio, but not impossible — but again, Tales from the Days of Yore is a debut album, and among its crucial functions is to set up avenues for future growth on the part of the band. It does that and more, providing a deep-running listening experience that shows Red Eye as thoughtful in their use of structure and pace as well as schooled in the style in which they’re establishing their roots for future development.
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