Genre : thall, Metalcore, Djent
Released : May 26th & November 30th, 2023
Label : Self-release
FFO : Vildhjarta, Allt, Reflections, Grayscale Season, No Oath, Catsclaw
By now, it's no news that there has been a massive rise in popularity in the past few years of the hyper-specific djent hybrid sub-sub-genre coined "thall", pioneered by the Swedish avant-garde prog metallers Vildhjarta.
So much so, that its influence has spread from underground one-man bands to more "mainstream" areas of heavy music, mostly metalcore, introducing wider audiences to its recognizable musical characteristics.
From Sleep Token and Loathe using elements of thall to contrast with their cleaner and catchier sections, to Polyphia and Animals As Leaders adding it to their repertoire of guitar tricks or even No Oath and fromjoy incorporating it to their electronic experimentations ; there is a whole new wave of bands either emerging or reinventing themselves, relying on the specificities of thall to do so and bringing their own unique DNA to the hyper-specific sub-genre in the process.
Such is the case of the Belgian five-piece Ice Sealed Eyes who take a much more atmospheric and slower-paced approach than usual to thall's trademark qualities while blending those with metalcore and modern electronics.
It was the track "There Is No Safety In The Dark" from "Vol.1" that first drew my attention to this band, with its stripped-down instrumentation mostly consisting of hullking, lumbering percussive intervals of down-pitched guitars contrasting with clean, melancholic and vulnerable sounding vocals.
Ice Sealed Eyes are also definetly more than capable of delivering the "meat and potatoes" of "methallcore" (I'm copyrighting that) as we have come to know it, mixing punishing breakdowns that manage to take the listener by surprise (especially on the track "Torments") with ambient atmospheres, memorable clean sections, the occasional jittery dissonant riffs, string bends and hyper-distorted, compressed trap-beat inspired electronics.
"Vol. 2"'s interlude "Forlorn" with its distorted beat, accoustic guitar loop and mix of apathetic and screamed vocals reminded me of some of late controversial rapper XXXTENTACION's earlier cuts, bringing an unexpected stylistical diversity that works rather well in the ensemble of sounds Ice Sealed Eyes present to their listeners.
Said interlude is followed by the hyper ballistic "Deadweight" featuring fellow Belgian modern metalcore band Concealed Reality and showcases a heavily saturated distortion style of sound production on guitar/bass tones as well as electronics that blurs the line between both ; reminding me of No Oath's solo work along with his contributions to Humanity's Last Breath newest release earlier this summer, "Ashen".
It's genuinely super exciting to see the different degrees of experimentation with thall many recent bands have been dabbling with and to observe the varying levels of success in the final products as well as how different artists appropriate the style to make it their own in order to both push their own music and thall itself into new places.
It is clear that Ice Sealed Eyes already have a very solid grip on how to make great sounding modern "methallcore", but where they truly shine and stand out from other acts operating in a similar vein, in my opinion, is during those moments of well-balanced contrast between hyper-heavy and hyper-delicate like I mentioned earlier with the track "There Is No Safety In The Dark" from "Vol.1".
With one album and two EP's under their belt since they started putting out music in early 2021, the band are still only getting warmed up but have already displayed great potential in the modern metalcore space.
I'd be keeping an eye on what they do if I were you!