When looking at the band picture of Britain’s The Eyes Of A Traitor you can’t help but to get a little prejudicial. Yet, another emo-/metalcore hype from the UK?!?! Well, not exactly! These young lads from Hertfordshire actually do have something to bring to the table. With an extreme, yet melodic mix of metal, hardcore en progressive elements, they’ve made A Clear Perception to an enjoyable album indeed.

The label that picked these guys up was also home to Bring Me The Horizon in the past. Sure, that ain’t really surprising, ‘cause besides their looks, also musically this band reminds me of BMTH. Only a little more appealing I might add. Where BMTH sounds too much the same to me, The Eyes Of A Traitor mixes some surprising elements into their music. Not only the progressive influences are nice, the guitar work is really staccato-like, which gives the music a real heavy and rhythmical feel.

Also, there’s room for some solos here and there, double melodic vocal attacks (fortunately not too whining and too often), and a singer that reminds me a lot of Emmure’s vocalist. What makes this album a little more attractive are the keyboard parts that especially operate in the background of the music. And, almost forgot about that one, the bass. Its sound is really in the forefront on this album, hence the extremely heavy sound. Nice! But possibly a bit too much for your speakers though.

To say this band is just another metalcore band wouldn’t be fair. It’s more like an extreme version of metalcore. Or metallic hardcore if you wish. Personally I get bored quite easily after listening for about 20 minutes, but I can imagine lots of people will absolutely dig this stuff. I’d like to think of it as a nice mixture between Bring Me The Horizon and Emmure with still a bit of their own. Hopefully they’re more convincing than BMTH on stage.

Songs to check out are ‘With Different Eyes’ and ‘The Impact Of Two Hearts’. The first one because of its heavy beginning and thus a good overall impression of the band. The second one for it carries some surprising guitar work in the beginning of the song that illustrates that this band is capable of just a little more than just playing your average heavy metalcore music.