Eyes of Agony release their first album, When They Return, on 20 November through Awakening Records. Resuscitation Failed, one of its nine tracks, is out now.
The band did not begin as a band. Danny Cinicolo, the guitarist behind Excidium and Maleficarum, had been shaping some of this material for years, and early versions went up on his own Danny Cynic channel before the idea turned into a full line-up. The first call went to Andrea Zanetti, a longtime friend and his bandmate in Maleficarum, who sings on the record and whose history also takes in Iconoclast, Schizo, Monumentum and Sinoath.
The rest came in around the two of them. Davide Billia, of Beheaded, Hour of Penance, Antropofagus, Putridity and Septycal Gorge, recorded his drums at his own MK2 Recording Studios. Massimo Boffa, of Mind Control and Halley, took the other guitar, and Fabrizio Biondi, formerly of Mechanical God Creation, the bass.
Roughly thirty six minutes of old school death metal that the label says deliberately avoids the straight line, moving between forward momentum and more twisted structures with the solos placed rather than scattered. Incantation, Nile, Cannibal Corpse, At The Gates and Death are the names given as influences. Luca Nicolucci mixed and mastered at Comet Broadcasting Studio and Julian Mortuus made the cover art. Awakening Records puts it out on CD.
Five musicians who recorded in different places, with the stated aim of sounding like one band in one room rather than a studio project assembled piece by piece.