Reviews list for Kayo Dot - Choirs of the Eye (2003)

Maudlin of the Well has been my favorite avant-garde metal band for a few years, but I think it's time to pass that torch over to its direct successor, Kayo Dot. Their debut Choirs of the Eye was a difficult album to find for me a couple years ago, even on YouTube, but finally it's here! And it's perhaps the most brilliant offering of unpredictable avant-garde metal I've heard today. Why try to achieve it all in so many short songs when it can be done in 5 mostly long tracks?

I'm sure even the more doomy metalheads will be impatient with how slow things go. But the music is atmospheric to keep you transcending before something unexpected happens, like a more diverse Isis.

The opener "Marathon" has ambient saxophone in the two and a half minute intro. Then BOOM!!!! Heaviness comes on with beautiful singing and vicious growls/screams. It keeps switching from ambient to heavy while moving things slowly. Next track "A Pitcher of Summer" is shorter than the other tracks at only 6 minutes long. It's calm without much of a structural setting, in which the buildup seems to teether up and down before having more haunting loudness. There's even some Radiohead-esque singing.

"The Manifold Curiosity" has so much to explore, as more instruments and vocal styles are added to the arsenal. 4 and a half minutes into the track, the soft ambience is broken by a melodic explosion with a huge variety of jazzy instruments that not a lot of metal bands can add without tainting their sound. From the 10-minute mark onwards, there's more intense chaos. How intense?! It's actually in the same level as Strapping Young Lad with Converge-like screaming rage, especially at the very end with a brief moment of grind-ish metalcore. A truly heavy and artsy epic!

Next up, "Wayfarer" is a haunting yet lovely song. The singing drama and Psycho-like violin screeches get the song a bit of a horror vibe. I also like that good solo. The final epic "Antique" starts off with the usual slow ambience then builds up some heaviness, at one point reaching the intensity of The Dillinger Escape Plan, another brief grind-ish metalcore moment! Then it all quiets down for a long piano outro, similar to the end of TDEP's final album Dissociation, but with a more jazzy background.

Well the jazzy side of this album isn't as much as Maudlin of the Well. Choirs of the Eye can be considered a unique brand of doomy post-/avant-garde metal with a few brief moments of grind-ish metalcore and alt-prog rock. Ya like jazz? Ya like rock? Ya like metal? Give this perfect masterpiece a go. Bring more life to music appreciation!

Favorites: "Marathon", "The Manifold Curiosity", "Antique"

Kayo Dot is the brainchild of Toby Driver and Choirs of the Eye is the debut album from the group, released in 2003. I did not become familiar with the group until very recently with their 2019 album Blasphemy. And I was completely underwhelmed by what I heard. For one, the bass was non-existent, making the really long tracks on that album feel even longer, since they had no forward momentum.

Now I can say that when the band started out, they had less of that problem. But at the same time, they were very much out of the mainstream as this album is jarring as hell! There is a lot of dissonant tones and ideas that are recurrent throughout the album in which, if you are not prepared for them, can make for an uncomfortable experience. But I do believe that the band was able to pull off most of it pretty well.

For starters, when this album gets heavy, whether it be near the outro of "The Manifold Curiosity" or basically the entirety of the finale, "The Antique", Kayo Dot can throw down some impressive grooves and ideas, even if that might not be their end goal. The instrumental work is stellar on this record, the incorporation of horns and strings as melodic instruments creates a welcome change of pace, and the bands control of dynamics is impressive. And the production doesn't get in the way of the dynamic swells either; they feel natural and rewarding.

While I don't think that there is one particular "bad" song on the album, the second track, "A Pitch of Summer" does highlight most of this albums most perplexing moments, such as the use of extended pauses that constantly made me wonder if something was wrong with my playback device! Or the very minimal development of ideas. Granted, this happens less throughout the rest of the project because "A Pitch of Summer" is the shortest song, but it takes a painfully long time for "Marathon" to get started and it could have been trimmed down.

Am I in love with Choirs of the Eye? No. While the genre of "Avant-Garde" music is up to interpretation, there are plenty of ways in which the genre can be executed well. And Kayo Dot deliver one of the more unique heavy metal records you may ever hear. However, the reason it is called "Avant-Garde" is just that: it's vanguard. It's a plethora of different genres (not just metal) all mashed together into one. And you're enjoyment of this record will be if you can handle the madness.