It has been quite a journey for Utah’s Eidola, and one that shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. In fact, as the band barrel down life’s highway they seem to be gaining speed and hit us with their second long player inside nine months. Mend is the second half of a double album and is the yin to April 2024’s yang (the Eviscerate opus). Two very different albums which compliment themselves extremely well, Mend continues Eidola’s unending quest to explore new sonic spaces and (while this might be a bold claim for mid-January) promises to be one of 2025’s key releases.
That Eidola have been tagged everything from post-hardcore to progressive rock while successfully avoiding easy categorisation evidences what a malleable sound this crew has. What’s even more impressive is that no matter what guise they appear they remain easily recognisable, and their latest offering Mend finds a band who steadfastly refuse to be pigeonholed. If you need proof look no further than the opening couplet; ‘Brahman – Garden Of Eden’ is an instrumental introduction that’s full of Eastern flourishes and blossoms like a lotus flower, opening slowly to reveal its delights, whilst the following ‘Prodigy’ is a sublime piece of rock infused disco that’ll have all but the frail and infirm grooving and shaking their stuff. Two very different tracks that are united by an invisible thread and therein lies the genius of Eidola. Mend will very much follow this trajectory and bounces like a silver ball between bumpers and visits math-rock, metalcore, emo and experimental rock (and sometimes all within the same song). It’s something that only Eidola could pull off and it ensures that Mend never becomes staid.
The constant musical flux on Mend alters the listener’s physiology in strange ways and makes us feel a range of emotions lifting us one moment on ‘A Pearl In A Dead Sea’ before lowering us the next on ‘What It Means To Be Alone’. Sometimes visceral, others cerebral, Mend is an album which will transfer well to the live environment and contains plenty of moshable, pit-inciting sections, yet there’s a depth to the lyricism that’ll provide a bottomless well of private bedroom musings. In line with the album’s ethos, closing track ‘Revelation – The Infinite Beauty Of Oneness’ poses as many questions as it answers, so don’t be surprised if there’s another episode in this saga.
- Mend is released via Rise Records on 17th January 2025.
- Official Website
Track List:
1. Brahman – Garden Of Eden
2. Prodigy
3. Empire Of Light
4. My Father’s House
5. Kaleidoscope
6. A Pearl In A Dead Sea
7. Blood In The Water
8. Renaissance
9. What It Means To Be Alone
10. Restore Me
11. The Faustian Spirit
12. Godhead – First Temple
13. Revelation – The Infinite Beauty Of Oneness
