To say American group 7 Horns 7 Eyes are "another" tech metal band doesn't do them much justice. They're a damned sight more interesting than most for one. Taking a slightly slower, some may even say doomier, although others may say it's more deathcore based, approach instead of a constant spew of wanking over a guitar means that the band actually have riffs(!) that are allowed to breathe out. Regardless of such little matters, the main thing is that the band have created something that is interesting, and more importantly, actually quite good.

Opening track Vindicator is, as you may have guessed, a bit of a slow burner. It gradually slithers along, with the lead lines sliding effortlessly on top while some background vocal harmonies add a little more depth to thing before the vocals proper show up, which may bring out the “deathcore” calls. But that aside the prog reigns over all here, chugged riffs or no. It just seems so very... fresh. And the little eerie clean section that leads into the solos just adds all these little nuances that make you focus your attention away from other things. Sadly the title track is a bit of a filler instrumental, but The Winnowing has little strains of Devin Townsend in the riffs and those serpentine leads that will hopefully be the band’s trademark as well as another fine use of the harmonised vocals at the back.

The mean deciding factor in the band is the vocals. You will either equate them, and the whole band, as a deathcore band just because of their sound and the odd little chuggy bit, or you can deal with them and focus on everything else as well. The musicianship here is fantastic and the EP is very well produced, so hopefully both of these things will carry on into their full length.

The EP can be streamed from the Basick Records Bandcamp here.