Search - Unearth :: III: In The Eyes Of Fire

METAL in Capital Letters

D'Ann | AZ | 09/25/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One glance at the cover of this Unearth CD should give you a hint of its contents; iron gray shields, skulls, thorns and battle axes against a field of deepest black. Like many other bands desperate to escape the "metalcore" tag, Unearth has set out to prove they are a F***ING METAL band by making the hardest, fastest and fiercest music of their careers on this effort. To that end, they called in producer Terry Date of Pantera, Soundgarden and early Deftones fame, instead of previous collaborator (and Mr. Metalcore himself) Adam Dutkiewicz. The result is an album that is far more rough and organic sounding than the group's previous releases; Date's production style leaves some ragged edges that Adam D would have polished away. "In The Eyes Of Fire" comes about as close as you can to capturing on CD the raw energy that Unearth is known for as a live act, a definite advantage to Date's approach. A disadvantage, however, is that lead vocalist Trevor Phipps loses some of his effectiveness, which is too bad, because Phipps has definitely grown lyrically on this CD. While his left-wing politics are still on display in tracks like "March Of The Mutes," "The Devil Has Risen" and "Impostors Kingdom," "Glorious Nightmare" is a portrait of the struggle against addiction, and the songs "Sanctity of Brothers" and "This Time Was Mine" respectively eulogize a friend who overdosed and a terminally ill family member. The song "Giles" is a history lesson. One of the few men to be charged during the Salem witch trials, Corey Giles chose to be crushed to death under stones rather than plead guilty because to do so would have prevented his sons from inheriting his land. The one disappointment is the album's final track, the instrumental "Big Bear and the Hour of Chaos." Despite an unexpected piano interlude courtesy of bassist John Maggard, this track sounds mostly like a case of "Well, we've got this cool song, but our singer can't come up with any decent lyrics, so we'll call it an instrumental and use it to close the CD." Nice try, but next time either spin the song out and show what you can do musically (there's no doubt these guys can play), or leave it off altogether. There's always the next CD, and if Unearth keeps making solid efforts like this one, their fans will eagerly await whatever they do next."

Blazing Metalcore Onslaught

Jeremy Brackeen | Cameron, WI United States | 11/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Unearth are plain and simply one of the best modern metalcore bands today. Their third official release 2009's "III: In the Eyes of Fire" (thier second with Metal Blade) is simply an all out heavy, blistering, blazing, skull pounding, neck snapping metal/hardcore assault that is 100% guaranteed to greatly pulverize the human ears. While the band's 2004 release "The Oncoming Storm" (which was produced by Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage) was a great album and one of my favorite metalcore cds that I own, but this album is heavier, faster, and much better, and it's also less core and more metal oriented as well. I haven't gotten thier newest album "The March" yet, but I'm looking very forward to getting that album soon. For "III: In the Eyes of Fire", Unearth enlisted the help of famed producer Terry Date (Pantera, Deftones, Soundgarden, Overkill) and his production on here is simply flawless. Frontman Trevor Phipps leads the onslaught with brutal, rapid, gut wrenching screams and shouts, and introspective lyrics, while the 7-string master duo of Ken Susi and Buzz McGrath lash out with frantic, thrashing At The Gates style riffing and awesome ripping solos, and let's not forget the breakdowns which are just super heavy and bone crushing, and of course skinsman Mike Justian pounds away with mean, relentless, hammering thrash metal style drumming which is just fantastic. Opening up the album is "This Glorious Nightmare" which immediately without warning opens up the flood gates with lightning fast drumming, relentless speeding riffs, and rapid screams, and the song doesn't let up from that point on. I love the chorus, it's just fist pumpingly catchy as well. The next song "Giles" continues the vicious attack with more violent, fast riffing, and hammering drums, and some crushing breakdown sections especially during the chrouses as well as near the end of the song. Track four "Sanctity of Brothers" and track five "The Devil Has Risen" are both big fast, scorching, thrash monsters that will make you bang your head like crazy. The seventh song entitled "Unstoppable" features well let's see, brutal screaming vocals, brutal riffs, brutal drumwork. This is definately a song that lives up to it's name, it is truly unstoppable. My personal favorite song on here, track eight "So It Goes" is highlighted by a successful series of ripping dualing guitar solos by Ken and Buzz that will definately please anyone who digs guitar solos like myself. Track ten "Bled Dry" is another wild, brutal scorcher that features some super heavy machine gun riffing around the 1:41 mark, as well as some more slamming, pounding drums, and heart pumping screams, and let's not forget about the closing instrumental track eleven "Big Bear and the Hour of Chaos" which is great as well. For the entire song list and ratings, please read on.

Jeremy's song ratings:

1. This Glorious Nightmare (4:21) - 5/5

2. Giles (3:57) - 5/5

3. March of the Mutes (4:02) - 5/5

4. Sanctity of Brothers (3:28) - 5/5

5. The Devil Has Risen (3:21) - 5/5

6. This Time Was Mine (4:10) - 5/5

7. Unstoppable (5:05) - 5/5

8. So It Goes (5:02) - 5/5 My favorite song

9. Impostors Kingdom (3:23) - 5/5

10. Bled Dry (3:55) - 5/5

11. Big Bear and the hour of Chaos (3:09) - 5/5



If you're looking for a metal/hardcore album that is blisteringly fast and furiously blazing and brutally heavy, and is made for some serious headbanging enjoyment, then Unearth's "III: In The Eyes of Fire" is rightfully yours to own. With this album, Unearth prove that they're definately on top of their metalcore peers. Overall, I highly recommend this album to fans of Unearth, metal, metalcore, hardcore, and even some thrash metal fans will like this as well. This is an album that should not be slept on, buy it now."

What are you all talking about this album is excellent

CRV | New York City | 08/26/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I think reviewers are to critical on this album for all the wrong reasons. Unearth is a metalcore band and this album succeeds at being great in that genre. Its aggressive, has very catchy pounding riffs and awesome musical solos. By the way unearth do sound unique compared to all the other cookie cutter bands out there. Anytime an album can put an adrenaline rush in you is when it is the epitome of great metal. Unearth has done that in their first 3 albums. With this album they really excelled with the aggression and catchy hooks with Giles, Sanctity of brothers, March of the mutes."