SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: TOMBSTONES IN THEIR EYES – ASYLUM HARBOUR

TOMBSTONES IN THEIR EYES
ASYLUM HARBOUR
KITTEN ROBOT RECORDS

Feeling trapped is not applicable only to physical confinement, but also in how one can be stuck with a certain feeling. At first this sense of imprisonment can be non-existent, because the experience is new, it’s exciting. After a while, though, the redundancy of it all makes it evident that you’ve been here longer than intended. Asylum Harbour exhibits these notions of being stuck, despite the promising nature of the start of the album.

Tombstones In Their Eyes kicks off Asylum Harbour with an experience similar to that of being at a concert, for the vocal and instrumental sounds bounce around the listener, placing one in the center of it all. This immediate immersion into the music, with explosive openings accompanied by endings that fade out to make way for the following song, welcome one to feel blissfully carefree.

The experience, however, is only temporary, spanning the first few songs if lucky. After a couple tracks, it is obvious that the songs are all identical in almost all aspects of their structure, excluding maybe the lyrics. It’s similar to the casino scene in Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, where the main characters are given candy to make them forget how long they have been at the casino in hopes they never leave. To translate this to Asylum Harbour, those first few songs are the candy, and then after that you’re stuck. The only glimmer of hope that a world of music exists outside this album once drawn inside is “Gimme Some Pain”, for the vocals promisingly come through sooner than the others, yet the song eventually falls into the same pattern as the rest. “Set Me Free” is also an optimistic song, for it feels like the album should end here, and if it did that would be a respectable place to stop, but having another song afterward makes the album feel too long.

Individually, each song on Asylum Harbour has the same effect as the first few, which is great, for the songs themselves are immersive and freeing. When presented as a collective, however, the album feels overly repetitive, and therefore quite restricting. Tombstones In Their Eyes is clearly talented, but it’s worth exploring new combinations of sound and vocal range for collections of music that feel more unique on a one-on-one comparative basis.

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