Coming off of the release of last year’s Looking For A Light, Tombstones In Their Eyes are back with a well-equipped approach to their music by adding lush vocal harmonies into a crowd pleasing set of tunes. Guitarist and vocalist John Treanor said this about the band’s evolution, “The band is evolving, which is cool. I’ve never been in a band that stuck around long enough and released enough material to really see the change occur. There’s such a wide range of songs and sounds now, it’s really hard to pigeonhole what we are: Psych Rock? Maybe. Shoegaze? Not so much at this point. Indie Rock? Maybe. Rock and Roll? Yes. It all depends on which song you’re playing, really, but all the songs fit into the Tombstones In Their Eyes genre and sound, no matter how disparate their sound.” With limitless possibilities for their songwriting, this band appears to be hitting the right groove in their musical journey.
Kicking off the A Higher Place EP with the sprawling vocal harmonies found on “I Know Why” reminds me of the 70’s psychedelic rock bands that made their mark during this era. What the band does best on songs like this is to hone in on the vocal element of their songs and breathe new life into the Rock N’ Roll genre. The title track follows with a more straight-forward rock approach with some pulsating beats, drowned out vocals in the background that allow for the instruments to be brought to the forefront of the mix. It makes for a pretty cool wall of sound that grabs the listener and takes them on an odyssey of guitar bliss.
”I’m Not Living In Fear” continues down the path of leaving the vocals feeling a little distant in the mix, while focusing on the trippy stoner rock coming through the speakers. “Dreaming” and “Hidden In My Eyes” offer some varying degrees of Pink Floyd-esque rock songs with some complex harmonies and interesting guitar riffs to keep things moving in the right direction. And “This River” closes out the EP with grace on a sprawling five and a half minute opus of rock lore.
While some may not like this direction that Tombstones In Their Eyes took on this EP, I think it’s nice to see a band willing to take some calculated risks in discovering what works best for them as a band. A Higher Place will be a record that I will put on from time to time to remind myself that there are still hard-working bands out there willing to revisit the psychedelic era of music and can still breathe a little bit of new life into the genre.