About 10 years ago if I had heard this EP I wouldn’t have been able to appreciate its complex intricacies. As I write this, I’m on my 5th listen and I keep noticing more; more layers, depth, complexities I missed the previous times I’ve listened to it. One thing I know for sure is that I absolutely wish this was a full length - I can’t wait for that to come, when it does.
None of the 3-tracks are the same and each track moves through many different emotions, genres and influences I could easily write 1000 words on only these 3 songs. I try not to draw similarities with other artists but the complex layers in these songs makes me want to as it’s easier to put into words in relation to other artists like Opeth, Anathema, Sixes, Cripple Mr Onion, Shepherds of Cassini and Meshuggah to name a few. I didn’t read the accompanying press release until after I had listened to it and after reading their about influences and different musical backgrounds all of the layers now make perfect sense. The hectic time signatures nods both to the Jazz and classical backgrounds of the members, while also effortlessly blending into the heavier elements of metal and hard rock. The Press Release mentions prog - rock numerous times but I’d hesitate to call them this, they are way more hectic and heavier.
This is an uncharacteristically short review for me, the layers and complexities are almost impossible to pull apart and put into words. If you like your music tasty, complex, yet haunting while also being heavy as fuck then One by One and Two by Two is the EP for you! Not everyone will understand this complex piece of work, but it’s worth the ear worms! Eight Eyed Orchid have a release show is on the 22nd November at Valhalla, Wellington - if you are in Wellington please go and tell me what they are like live. This is a band now on my bucket list to see live when I am back in New Zealand.
Wellington alt-metal quartet Eight Eyed Orchid deal in dense, dynamic song journeys. Though the members of EEO come from a range of musical backgrounds—extreme metal, neo-soul, jazz, contemporary classical—they share a love of progressive rock. Hence, epic riffs are pulled through winding song structures with restless rhythmic shifts, guided by versatile vocals that range from soaring melodicism to cathartic screams to dexterous throat singing.
Soon after forming in early 2017, the band began chipping away at a recording, which resulted in their three-song EP, One By One & Two By Two, released in November of 2018. Lead single Petrichor received critical praise and support from student radio throughout New Zealand, with Everything Is Noise calling it “some of the most effortless progressive alt-metal heard in quite some time”. Of the EP, Muzic.net.nz remarked, “...if you like your music tasty, complex, yet haunting while also being heavy as fuck then One By One & Two By Two is the EP for you!”. Early 2019 saw the band play their first international live support slot, opening for German post-metal giants The Ocean.