Random Eyes – Invisible

The long wait of five years between albums has proved worthwhile in that Invisible showcases some of the finest material from the group to date. Up-tempo tracks “Deep Waters” and “Living For Tomorrow” both stand out with abundant melodies as does the energetic sounds of “Alive” and “New Flow” (plenty of time changes on these two). A mid-tempo heading is taken on “Where I Belong” and “For Your Love”, two emotional pieces making effective use of acoustic guitar, in addition to the guitar driven metal of “Take Me Away”. The albums classy title track and faith based “For All The Nations” combine the best of both worlds- heavy AND catchy.

Christian Palin proves a top of the line vocalist with a style occasionally hinting at Michael Sweet (Stryper) and Lance King (Avian). Mostly staying in smooth sounding territory, Christian can reach down low and add some backbone to his delivery or even cut loose in gritty and gravelly fashion. Quite the versatile showing that helps rank him with my favorite vocalists to come out of Northern Europe in recent years.

Heikki Paananen and Olli Tanttu are responsible for the albums guitar driven edge. Rhythm guitar there is in abundance, more than enough to push the groups sound well within metal territory (just check out the albums heavier pieces such as “Take Me Away” and “Invisible). It is on lead guitar, however, that the two fall a bit short- an area I also complained about in my review of Eyes Ablaze. The main problem is that neither cut loose as they should (or I might hope) in that only a few tracks here feature any type of relevant lead guitar (“Where I Belong” – with its neo-classical soloing – and “For Your Love” both come to mind). Otherwise, the material on Invisible finds its instrumental passages – as brief as they are – sustained by rhythm guitar.


Track List:
1 Deep Waters
2 Living For Tomorrow
3 Alive
4 New Flow
5 Where I Belong
6 For Your Love
7 Take Me Away
8 Scriptures
9 For All The Nations
10 You Are The Reason
11 Invisible