Released on Friday 10th of July, via Better Noise Music, was the album Villainous by the Detroit alt-metal rockers Eva Under Fire. This is the band’s third studio album, which follows the 2022 album Love, Drugs & Misery. For this new album Villainous,which is also the title of the lead single featuring Maria Brink from In This Moment, we are sure to be in for some bold and powerful vocal performances.
The band Eva Under Fire is composed by; Eva Marie also known as Amanda Lyberg (vocals), Rob Lyberg (lead guitarist), Chris Slapnik (guitarist), Ed Gawlik (bassist) and Dave Miller II (drummer). But now, let’s get into the good stuff and highlight my favourite tracks from this album; I was pretty stoked to listen to it and go through it all with you.
My first highlight track is ‘Awakening’, which gives me vivid images of comic book characters, heroes or villains. Both the instrumentals and vocals are full of powerful rage, and are fully complemented by emotive lyrics with phrases like; “I told the dark, that I had survived, Demons couldn’t take me, I am awakening” and “When suffering becomes too much, no matter what they say, we rise above, they couldn’t break me”. I found this track really intense and the message that it carries is just brutally beautiful; no matter how much people or adversity try to drag you down, you must rise above and show them that they aren’t powerful against you.
My second highlight is album title track ‘Villainous’, featuring Maria Brink from the band In This Moment. From the second the songs starts it just gives the ultimate kick ass vibes, with Maria Brink screaming along with Eva Marie. This track is absolutely rammed full of raw female rage and power; lyrics like “I mean every word I say, I don’t bother threatening, why would I waste my time?” and “I’m on a new level, the old me’s dead and gone, you made a new villain and that’s whose side I’m on” speak of reclaiming lost control and using that which has made us suffer to become stronger. Just like ‘Awakening’ there’s a message here that so many, including me, will connect deeply to.
My third and final track to highlight in this album is ‘Dark Soul’. This track strikes me as one that’ll become a real live anthem, with a background melody that I can just see fans getting stuck into during shows. Again, there’s that message that came across so clearly in my other highlight tracks: “When you become a dark soul, where do you go when the lights go out?”, it’s like accepting your darker side and having no shame about it, because sometimes it doesn’t matter how hard you try to fight the real you, you’ll always end up craving the authenticity of the true you in the end.
I think that, all in all, the album Villainous is a great heavy rock album. With this being the first time fully listening to Eva Under Fire, I am seriously impressed with how these guys do things. The pure raw anger and emotional depth shooting through out the entire album really spoke to me; now I feel that I must go and listen to the rest of their catalogue, as I can tell I will be having Eva Under Fire and Villainous on rotation in my playlist this summer.
