Myopic prepare new EP (stream a song)

by Doug Moore

We’ve debuted a new song by the up-and-coming Maryland black metal act Myopic over at Invisible Oranges this afternoon. Their upcoming EP Beyond the Mirror’s Edge is killer; it splits the difference between “normal clothing” (i.e. no corpsepaint, no spikes) black metal and wiry late-’80s/early-’90s noise rock. From our writeup:

The slow blasts and clattery strumming that populate the verse and chorus to “Iron Towers” remind me a lot of Tombs, partially because of guitarist Sean Simmons’s excellent (and vaguely Schuldiner-esque) bellow. But Myopic take the song further into prog-space than Tombs would; its central third consists of a long, mostly instrumental bridge that builds to a nauseating peak before plunging back into the verse.

Other songs on the EP take different tacks entirely — “Backstitch” is a lengthy, rock-rhythmed instrumental; “Lord of Damnation” is a cover of the goofy Swedish prog-metal band Carbonized. All is rendered in hard, sparse tones, with minimal gain on the guitars (for a metal album) and loads of space around each instrument. If Steve Albini could tolerate double bass, his metal work might sound a little like this. This sere aural landscape is fitting: lean sounds for a lean operation.

Read the whole writeup over at IO. Beyond the Mirror’s Edge comes out digitally on November 12 via Grimoire Records. A physical release (CD and cassette) will follow on January 7, 2014. Stream “Iron Towers” below…

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