Review Summary: Your eyes shine like the moon, they reflect the dark in you.
There are many things that can be said about the work ethos of one Mark Stebbing, the creative mind and leader behind the group Echo Tail. Hyperactive, always brainstorming, always putting down musical ideas, seemingly never catching a break. What I'm getting at, he is definitely not a lazy musician. It hasn't even been a complete two years for Echo Tail, and here I am, talking about their sixth full-length studio album. It has been quite a trip for this relatively young project, dipping their feet into a lot of musical styles, different musical concepts and themes. And coming right off of the continuation of Hold The Throne, King Defeatism, they hit us with a concept album yet again, focusing on dream lucidity and reality.
Fields Of Vision immediately lulls the listener in with an understated, but very well executed piano melody that leads into the trademark beautiful Echo Tail lead guitars. From here on out, the album places a very big emphasis on a more shoegaze/post-rock inspired sound than on the rather harsh and heavy King Defeatism. Most songs are filled with wonderful, dream-like atmospheres that create a very soothing and inviting feeling. Complimentary to this, the lead-melodies on this album are also way more accessible and catchy, and are bound to stick inside of your head for a long time, not unlike some melodies you would hear from pre-Future Man Solterra. The introduction of vocals on the song „Ultraviolet“ are also a big plus, with Mark having a more than servicable singing voice. The production is very clear and crisp as well, really underscoring and bringing out every melodic-phrase to the forefront, with the drum-work being dialed back a bit, giving it a bit of a pop-sensibility.
If you, however, went into this album expecting more experimental songs or the more raw, metal side of Echo Tail, you don't have to worry as well. Songs like „Our Own Personal Silence“, with its warbled percussion and slow, uneasy pace or the title track with it's glitchy, noisy electronics are bound to catch your interest. And if you are more into their heavy side, songs like „Circles and Spirals“, the end of „Minutes“ and „Siberian Inferno“ bring enough inventive riffs and forward-thinking song-structures to satisfy your needs.
A song that I want to bring special attention to, though, is the closer Gemini, a strong contender for album closer of the year. Starting off with gentle clean guitar melodies, and switching melodic accents at seemingly every measure, it bursts out into one of the most beautiful distorted climaxes I have heard all year so far. It has a beautiful, melancholic and catchy melodic phrase that will stick in your head for days, intercepted by very impressive, emotive and fast soloing by Mark, before wrapping the album up with piano-tones, that aren't unlike the start of the album, making it feel very rounded and finished, and ultimately, fully realized. It's a fantastic song on its own, but made even better by the context of the album.
It is hard to maintain the quality from what people already considered your most accomplished album. But Echo Tail did just that. They took a step sideways from King Defeatism, tried styles they merely flirted with before, and put out a project that is just as good and just as cohesive. That is one hell of an accomplishment, especially for a band this young. The future is looking very bright for Echo Tail, and one can hope that they can prove themselves once more in yet another direction. But before that happens, we have more than enough proof that they are a very ambitious musical project, and I couldn't be more thankful for that.
