Eyes Set To Kill – The World Outside
BreakSilence Records

(4.5/5)

Less than a year after releasing their debut album Reach, Eyes Set To Kill is back with their sophomore album entitled The World Outside! According to singer Alexia Rodriguez, she really let loose and put more of her raw emotions into this album and doesn’t hold back on issues such as her own insecurities, the pain of lost love, and more. I honestly see the difference between this album and Reach and I feel the growth the band has made (even though Reach was an incredible album). Whether you want to pick this album apart and choose favorite tracks or not, there is no denying that the overall product is amazing! Some of the tracks I would mention that I feel represent this album well are “Heights” (Track 1), “The World Outside” (Track 5/Title track), “Wake Me Up” (Track 7), and “Her Eyes Hold The Apocalypse” (Track 11). These tracks are just 1/3 of the album. All twelve of the tracks are important to making this album as incredible as it is, but the mentioned tracks are good examples of the great amount of skill this band has and the ever growing vocal connection between Alexia Rodriguez and Brandon Anderson. All in all, The World Outside is a great album that I would suggest to any ESTK fan as well as any Metalcore fan!

Eyes Set To Kill
Alexia – Vocals / Guitar
Brandon – Screams / Keyboards
Greg – Guitar

1. Who are some of the influences for your musical style?
Alexia: I grew up listening to Blink-182 and Green Day, but I like to
think that my biggest influences were Thrice and Muse. Not only their
music, but their attitudes and the way they play with passion.

2. What was your attitude/what feelings went into writing “Reach”?
Alexia: We didn’t really set out to write certain songs for the album
purposely, but whatever I felt on the road or in relationships went
straight to paper. I mostly wrote about longing, hoping, and frustrations
as negative things that most people deal with. Hopefully anyone who
learns our lyrics will be able to relate, and let us help them through
times they thought were impossible to get through.

More positive lyrics were written towards our fans like in “Only Holding
On”. The songs about how life on the road can be discouraging when you
miss what’s home, but fans keep us touring and inspire us every day.

3. How does it feel to be on tour supporting such a great album?
Brandon: It’s awesome because we worked so hard on the album, and now we
get to play all of our new songs for our new/old fans. It’s also cool to
see kids sing along to our songs.

4. How does tour life typically go for Eyes Set To Kill?
Greg: It’s so much fun. We are all best friends…so if you can imagine
touring the country for months at a time, with four of your best
friends, you’ll understand what I mean. Aside from playing shows our
nights usally consists of WAL-MART super center parking lots (because
they have 24 parking). It’s our home away from home.

5. Do you prefer to play big venues or smaller ones?
Alexia: It never really matters to us, just as long as the venue is
packed with people excited to see us as much as we are excited to see them:)

6. What keeps you entertained during down time while on tour?
Greg: Well since we’ve toured so much in the past year, we have made
lots of friends in different states, so if we get lucky, we will find
ourselves spending our down time with friends. If not, it’s all about
the phone games.

7. Is there a meaning behind the cover art for “Reach” or did it just
seem like a good picture?
Alexia: The cover of reach is related to the video of reach. The video
takes place in an old room of an eerie victorian home.

8. How do you feel about the final product for “Reach”?
Alexia: We couldn’t be any happier with the album. We worked really hard
on carefully formating and constructing the songs in between tours. It’s
our first finished album with our most solid lineup and it was Greg and
Caleb’s first time recording with us so they were extra excited when it
was finished.

(4.5/5)

Reach is easily in my top 10 albums of 2008! I seriously can’t put this album down! In this album, Eyes Set To Kill brings you a great Metalcore mixture with a few heavy breakdowns, excellent acoustic work, and all around great music! Vocally, you are hit throughout the album with Alexia Rodriguez’s GORGEOUS singing and Brandon Anderson’s, almost, demonic scream. Not only do those two cover the vocals, but Alexia plays lead guitar while Brandon plays keyboards. Joining them in the incredible musical journey that is “Reach” are bassist Anissa Rodriguez, guitarist Greg Kerwin, and drummer Caleb Clifton. Although the entire album is awesome, a few songs stuck out to me as “favorites”. Oddly enough, they all are right after another as tracks 4-7 which are entitled “Darling”, “Violent Kiss”, “Young Blood Spills Tonight”, and “Where We Started”. “Darling sticks out the most to me because of it beginning. Altogether the track is a great one as all the others are, but it starts out really strong with one of Brandon’s crazy screams and proceeds through different phases that switch vocally from Brandon to Alexia giving it a great mixture of Metalcore vocals. The next song that stands out really well is “Young Blood Spills Tonight”. This song starts out very beautifully with an acoustic part. All of the sudden you are hit with another one of Brandon’s screams before ESTK finishes taking you through different “movements” of the song, once again, providing a great Metalcore mixture. “Violent Kiss” and “Where We Started” stick out simply for their entire structures, but “Where We Started” also has the sound of a “female anthem”. What I mean by this is that lyrically, it sounds like what a lot of girls go through in relationships and whatnot. I definitely recommend the female fan base listen to that track! All in all, Reach is a fantastic album and I can’t wait to see what Eyes Set To Kill does next!