Review: lynch. - A GLEAM IN EYE

As much as people bash bands for trying new sounds, it is an utterly amazing thing that no one crucifies lynch. for sticking to the same formula they've been pumping out since A Grateful Shit. And this single proves that while the boys can still bring it in the rocking out department, the formula has gotten stale.

All they accomplished here is sounding fresh without doing anything new at all. And by doing something "new" I mean not recycling the same three or four riffs that I've heard elsewhere in their discography. Enter one part THE AVOIDED SUN and another part A GRATEFUL SHIT and shove it in a blender of better production and stronger vocals and you'd get A GLEAM IN EYE. Understanding lynch.'s formula and expecting a certain breed of song is one thing but this song isn't much different from the rest of their discography. I'm comfortable with bands that follow in the veins of DEATHGAZE, who have a core sound and don't deviate much from it but this is just way TOO similar to everything they've done before - and by everything I honestly do mean everything. Let's flashback to pre-SHADOW's era and this is nothing more than a rehash of ADORE with the prominent chorus, the stop at the solo portion before launching into the final chorus and then the recycling of the beginning to end out the song with Hazuki layered over it in the singing then screaming pattern. Is A GLEAM IN EYE good? Yes, but at the end of the day it's just another lynch. song.

To strengthen the ADORE connection even further, the first seconds of All this I'll give you are eerily reminiscent of an illusion. Thank god it ends up launching into some crunchy guitars but then flashbacks of I'm sick b'coz of you + enemy start reverbrating throughout the song, especially during the little guitar part at 1:30 (because that's literally a riff they recycle at least once an album). Oh, I also must mention that this song gets put above it's A-side purely because of Hazuki. Yes, that man does some beautiful things with his vocals in this track. It has slightly less traces of their "stock" sound than normal which means that this song took about as much risk as DEATHGAZE doing a ballad. Honestly this should be the single because when their fifth album ends up coming out this would be a lot less faceless than A GLEAM IN EYE. Don't get me wrong I like both tracks here but I don't think ADORE version two needs to be pushed (read: shoved) down our throats again and again and again.

And that's pretty much it. Once again, lynch have done more of the same. It's nice that there's a band or two that you can go to and know that when they release a single it's not going to suck with experimentation and "selling out" but where does one draw the line with not deviating from their sound and then not being able to sport a few new riffs? All this I'll give you highlights my problem in particular - it feels like an amalgamation of songs they've done before rather than a whole new song done in the same lynch.'y vein that I like. People hated SHADOWS because it didn't have enough ADORE-esque tracks but I loved it just because the presence of tracks like MAZE (I DON'T KNOW WHERE I AM sucked though) and CULTIC MY EXECUTION showed signs of experimentation while still sounding like lynch. but they played it safe with this one.

And perhaps they should have. 8/10 with a huge preference for the B-side on this release. lynch., do the right thing and put All this I'll give you on the next album.