Immediately upon seeing the cover for DEITY’S MUSE’s The Eyes Don’t See What the Heart Bleeds, i was intrigued and in awe. A man in a ragged coat grows from a tree stump and spews locusts from his mouth to the sky. Along with Agro’s Forthcoming, it’s was one of the best South African designs i’d seen when it came out in 2006. It raised expectations, probably unrealistically, on the music. But the band delivered in a big way.
The inclusion of melody is a token nod to commercial accessibility but this is mostly DEITY’S MUSE doing it their way. Themes are entirely grounded in the failings and hopes of humanity. The lyrics read as dark poetry with the instruments its ravaged soundtrack. “Don’t fall asleep, you might miss the end,” are the opening words for ‘This Broken Scar’. It’s an absolute scorcher and entirely representative of the album’s best qualities. ‘The Coldest Day’ lowers the tempo so that the vocals of Wayne Boucher shine through, emphasizing loss and desperation. ‘Dead Locusts’ takes the change one big step further on the legs of a violin. It’s this type of experimenting that gives the band reinvention and a chance at grabbing the attention of new fans. The extra screams are also embraced.
DEITY’S MUSE have raised the rock ‘n roll stakes and become a prince of the underground. If i had to make any comparison, i’d say that The Eyes Don’t See What the Heart Bleeds is a must for fans of Alice in Chains.
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