With Passion - What We See When We Shut Our Eyes

So this band With Passion - exactly who are they? What is their deal? Are they a case of technical rock gone haywire? Maybe -- or maybe it's just a jazz fusion band that wants to keep it heavy. I suppose this could be said of any band slapped with the label of "tech rock" on them, but they're leaning a bit more mainstream than that. Comparisons could be made to Necrophagist, Between The Buried And Me or even From A Second Story Window.


So this band With Passion - exactly who are they? What is their deal? Are they a case of technical rock gone haywire? Maybe -- or maybe it's just a jazz fusion band that wants to keep it heavy. I suppose this could be said of any band slapped with the label of "tech rock" on them, but they're leaning a bit more mainstream than that. Comparisons could be made to Necrophagist, Between The Buried And Me or even From A Second Story Window.

In any case, this album "What We See When We Close Our Eyes" certainly is an example of dizzing guitar handywork - stunning!!! Superlative!!! Stupendous!!! Tremendous!!! You just can't say enough about the fretboard wizardry of Jeffrey Morgan and John Abernathy. Fidel Campos howls and hisses like a riled up polecat on vocals, and it's steady as she goes, rhythm section holding up nicely as well.

With Passion favors puzzling time signatures that leave the listener -- well, puzzled. There are oh so many stops and starts and unexpected tempo changes, volume changes, etc. which is not in and of itself bad, but the best tracks on "What We See" for my money, are the ones that feature strong riffs and catchy melody lines (track 6, "Encryption" for example).

This is a group that has been disassembled and re-assembled again and "What We See When We Close Our Eyes" is the first full-length CD from this fine group of young fellows. The band released their first EP "In The Midst Of Bloodied Soil" independenty and were signed by Earache in October of 2004. They have shared the stage with such bands Nile and Hypocrisy and are scheduled to tour heavily in 2007. Hopefully the road will serve as a teacher to further tighten this already impressive act.


1. Pale Horse's Ride
2. Through the Smoke Lies a Path
3. What We See When We Shut Our Eyes
4. Triumph Over Tragedy
5. Tales of Sirens
6. Encryption
7. RJ MacReady
8. Forgotten Amongst Screams
9. Vengeance in Departure
10. A Road for the Worthy


Reviewer: mykke
Feb 26, 2009

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