Band:	Red Eye
Album:	The Cycle
Style:	Doom metal, Stoner metal
Release date:	February 2022

01. Foresaga
02. Flyht
03. Gaderung
04. Tempel
05. Morþor
06. Beorg
07. Æsce

It’s always nice to see stoner metal bands trying to push the boundaries stylistically.

Spain’s Red Eye introduced themselves with their 2019 full-length debut Tales From The Days Of Yore, a solid stoner doom outing that earned a nomination in that year’s stoner metal category in the Metal Storm Awards. It was a perfectly enjoyable album, but it also was pretty conventional, fluctuating between Windhand/Electric Wizard occultism and heavier, fierier sounds. On their sophomore record, the quartet have decided to see what they can do about breaking the mould.

The Cycle is a concept album, a three-part narrative taking listeners back to prehistoric Andalusia. Curiously enough, the musical narrative of this album reminds me of another concept album from a band interested in ancient history, The Ocean. Their record Pelagial takes listeners through the different levels of the ocean, getting heavier and heavier in the process; similarly, The Cycle starts off light and atmospherically before gradually descending towards a titanic, dense climax, traversing an impressive number of styles in the process.

“Foresaga” took me by surprise when first listening to The Cycle; my memory of Red Eye’s debut wasn’t that great, but I didn’t think they sounded like Wardruna. In truth, “Foresaga” doesn’t quite sound like Wardruna; they channel the same atmospheric neofolk vibes, but Red Eye don’t quite have the same resources available in terms of percussive and vocal prowess. Nevertheless, it’s a very respectable attempt at a neofolk sound, and offers an intriguing introduction to The Cycle, albeit one that isn’t entirely connected to the rest of the album.

The few tracks that follow are more in the vein of what one would expect from The Cycle with any familiarity with their previous work; “Flyht” is a dense, plodding stoner doom trudge with Ozzy-style vocals and eerie lead guitars, while “Gaderung” has roars and riffs to put hair on anyone’s chest in its second half. However, the first half of the song is a quiet, poised jam, and similar exploration of softer dynamics occurs early in “Tempel” and midway through “MorÞor”. At the other end of the spectrum, another sedate passage in “Beorg” is followed by full-pelt tremolo riffing and borderline-blasting drumming.

The stoner doom on this album very much leans into the doom, with some real trudging tempos and dense riffs, and that is pushed to the extreme on the closing song, “Æsce”. It’s effectively a funeral doom track, with glacial drumming and droning walls of guitar feedback, and represents a culmination of the journey Red Eye take listeners on across The Cycle. On the one hand, I don’t find this album to quite have the pull during the doom sections to get me on board as much as I would like to. On the flipside, I appreciate their ambition here and the ideas they’ve brought to the table in arranging the album, and I do find the softer sections to work nicely, particularly on the likes of “MorÞor” and “Beorg”, where the music develops an almost post-metal vibe from the range of dynamics encountered.