Album Review: Eyes Set To Kill - White Lotus

‘White Lotus,’ the fourth full length from Eyes Set to Kill, isn’t much more than a glorified EP, one without any sort of an ebb-and-flow to follow along to as the first few songs fit in with what the band has been doing sonically up to this point (soaring clean vocals, spotty screaming, crunchy guitars), but the last four are acoustic, two of them cover songs. That being said, if ‘White Lotus’ were to have been released as two separate EP’s, it would have been better off for it. Regardless, the usual back-and-forth vocal aesthetic ESTK have become known for lacks fluidity on ‘White Lotus,’ and isn’t nearly as dynamic as it’s been in years past. And speaking of, new screamer Cisko Miranda is near invisible throughout the album, and even when he is called upon to man the mic (‘The Secrets Between,’ ‘Erasing Everything’), he sounds out of place and cumbersome. ‘Harsh’ and ‘Where I Want to Be’ represent the two best cuts off the album, as they showcase what has long been the main selling point for ESTK – the vocal work of Alexia Rodriguez. The latter song brings a bit of heft to ‘White Lotus,’ though that isn’t saying all that much because for the most part this album lacks any punch at all. The two covers (Hole’s ‘Doll Parts’ and Nirvana’s ‘Polly’) aren’t all that bad, but they aren’t enough to save ‘White Lotus.’ In the span of one album cycle, it seems that Eyes Set to Kill went from an intriguing aggressive metalcore outfit with catchy melodic elements to a seemingly disposable female fronted pop-metal group. There are some promising songs here, which is too bad, because they just get lost in the confusing mess that is ‘White Lotus.’

2.5/5

‘White Lotus’ is available now on Forsee/Maphia.

Brian Campbell