50 Best Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Albums Of 2017
6. Eidola – To Speak, To Listen
An ambient hardcore outfit in the vein of Holding Absence and Burning Down Alaska, Eidola are one of the rock underground’s best-kept secrets. With their repertoire including soft ballads, quick rockers and metalcore-style anthems alike, this Utah quintet are armed with all the tools to become big, big players in contemporary alternative music.
To Speak, to Listen is Eidola’s third album overall, but it is also undoubtedly their best, somehow surpassing the previously-thought-indomitable brilliance of predecessor Degeneraterra (2015).
Everything it does, every angle it attacks and every tonal avenue it ventures down, all of it is done with nothing short of masterful precision, with the clean-cut tranquillity of such cuts as “Loti” just as ear-catching and heart-wrenching as the guttural breakdowns of a heavy-hitter like “Houses Movement III: Rust/Rebuild”.
Its technicality too is off the chart, especially in the ripping guitar shreds of Matthew Dommer and Brandon Bascom, but never to the point of distracting w*nkery, letting the emotive weight of Andrew Michael Wellis’s diverse vocals drive a plethora of accessible melodies on “Sri Vishnu Yantra”, “Transcendentium, Part I: Zoroastrian” and single “Tetelestai”.
Eidola truly provide something for everyone on their third full-length. Whether it be with its complexity, intelligence, heaviness or harmonies, you’re guaranteed at least something on To Speak, to Listen to fall in love with. With this disc, these experimental youngsters nail a trifecta of perfect eclecticism, continuing their spotless record in a gigantic way.