Eyes Set to Kill’s Third Album, 'Broken Frames'

The Phoenix-based band has set the record straight. Broken Frames is their most heavy and aggressive record to date. Andrew Wade, who produced Eyes Set to Kill’s third album, has pushed the band beyond their comfort capacities and into a more concrete sound that definitely establishes their new recording direction.

The latest addition to ESTK is Cisko Miranda, who with his raspy vocals and spectacular screams can rev up any crowd. But it is definitely the Rodriguez sisters, front-woman, Alexia, and bass-player, Anissa, who are the true crowd-drawers. The two beauties are the face of ESTK. With their rocker-chick undertones and pretty faces, what metal fan can resist?

It is also the perfect match in singing styles which have caught the attention of such media outlets as USAToday and Alternative Press Magazine, who handpicked them as one of the “100 Bands You Need to Know.”

The tracks off ESTK’s latest album are filled with emotion and projectiles of sometimes intense rage. Some might call it angst but for once, ESTK is not one of those bands. Alexia’s voice is at once angelic and sweet and it being off-set with Cisko’s raspy screams makes for an interesting combo in singing styles.

"All You Ever Knew," the first track off Broken Frames, starts out powerfully and almost intrusively. The song begins with guitar riffs and Cisko’s screams. Starting off with the screaming can be too hard for non-metal fans to grasp. To some degree, Eyes Set to Kill seems to be that band that stands mid-way in-between hard and soft-metal.

They are like the intro course before getting into hard-core metal. That might explain the riff between hard-metal fans and soft-metal fans. The former are more used to the harder stuff while the latter are happier with what ESTK are doing. Starting off with Alexia’s melodious voice makes the music more approachable and easier for first-time metal listeners to grasp.

Yet interestingly enough, there are songs off the album where the band leaves the vocals entirely up to Alexia to deliver. These songs, like "Ticking Bombs," "Ryan," and "Let Me In," are like reprieves from the screaming and are scattered sporadically throughout the album. They are meant to savor and are definitely what makes the band comparable to the likes of Flyleaf and Evanescence.

But it is the last track, "Let Me In," that is most evident of ESTK’s growth in sound. The chorus, which gets repeated throughout the entire song, is eerie and beautiful - a stand-alone separate piece from the album itself. Alexia sings “Tired of writing the same old song/Cause there’s no way out/Until you let me in/’til you let me in/C’mon let me in.”

As Alexia sings about acceptance, ESTK is obviously moving in a new direction. Whether they will be pleasing the more hard-metal fans or the radically softer-metal fans will be totally up in the air. Whatever direction it is, Eyes Set to Kill has definitely shown a lot of growth and this will leave a lot of people impressed.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misidentified Cisko Miranda as the newest member of the band.