Ecocide – Eye of Wicked Sight

When it comes to old-school death metal, Sinister is one of the names most associated with the Netherlands, and rightfully so. In modern day, however, there’s a new band from the same country playing an equally brutal and convincing form of death metal. Ecocide has only been around a few years, and they put out their first album, “Eye of Wicked Sight”, in 2013. Everything from the album cover/title, to the song titles, to the music, and even the production sounds like it is a long lost OSDM gem from 1992. Ecocide has this sound down perfectly, and it is remarkable that this release isn’t making more waves amongst the metal community.

The first astonishing aspect about “Eye of Wicked Sight” is the production. It’s almost unbelievable how well the band managed to capture the essence of the early 90’s. Nothing about this release is brickwalled, yet all of the instruments are insanely heavy. This style of production can get a bit clicky when the bass drums get going, but it also makes everything sound incredibly tight. Each riff and beat is precisely on point. Speaking of riffs, they tend to be pretty standard for the sound, but sometimes they show a bit of specific influence. The opening riff to the title track, for example, is pure Death worship. This riff would fit right in on “Leprosy” and “Spiritual Healing”. Most of this album is incredibly fast, but Ecocide isn’t afraid to throw in some doomier moments, such as the one that appears in “Unknown Disease”. There are also plenty of more mid-paced riffs as well (the aforementioned track is a great example of these as well). With that said, death metal is about providing some neck-snappingly good moments and Ecocide does plenty of that. One great example is “Terror From Beyond”, which because delivers the most brutal assault of the record. The riffs fly in your face at a mile a minute, and there’s not a single moment to catch your breath. Even when it does get “slower”, it is still incredibly pummeling. Not for the faint of heart, this song delivers the fury that death metal is all about. As you might imagine, the songwriting is also pretty on point. The haunting words “Crawling From The Crypt” leave a lasting impact, made better only by Sten’s incredible growls. His voice is deep, but understandable. A good comparison would be to Massacre’s Kam Lee, but Sten is certainly not unique amongst the death metal world. 

Ecocide has put together an impressive collection of old-school death metal tracks with “Eye of Wicked Sight”. As someone who isn’t big on the Inclonetation going on in the death metal scene, Ecocide is a refreshing change of pace that reminds the death metal scene that there were other great bands from the late 80’s and early 90’s. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think Ecocide was one of them. If you love old-school death metal, Ecocide is mandatory listening!

Be sure to check out and like Ecocide on Facebook!

Highlights

"Eye of Wicked Sight"

"Terror From Beyond"

"Crawling From The Crypt"

Final Rating

4.3/5 or 86%. 

Written by Scott