"Eyeshine launched into the underground rock scene in 2004 playing original songs alongside a lineup of cover bands. Their unique style of aggressive Edge Rock helped them stand apart for the average bands of the underground rock scene. Since 2006, Eyeshine has self-produced 4 albums and has continued to tour nationwide acquiring fans from all across the globe. With inspiring lyrics and catchy melodies, one could expect Eyeshine to be a major figure in the Indie Rock landscape for years to come.
Genres: Alternative / Edge Rock"

This band is really amazing, and for those in the know about anime, the lead singer is Johnny Yong Bosch, the dub voice actor for roles such as Ichigo Kurosaki and Hollow Ichigo in Bleach, Lelouch vi Britannia in Code Geass, Izaya Orihara In Durarara, as well as other various roles, including being a Power Ranger.

Any other Eyeshine fans among us Dollars? :3

While we do have an Eyeshine thread already, this one is far more descriptive, and I vote for replacing that old one with this.

However, my opinion on Eyeshine is kind of strained. I'll be completely honest, while I get that a large part of what they do is doing this to have fun, I don't really get the feeling that Eyeshine take what they write all that seriously. A lot of their songs follow the same formulas abundant in mainstream rock and alternative rock these days, and they truly don't stand out as their own act, sometimes even below average in that regard. Half the reason they get the popularity that they do is solely because Johnny Yong Bosch is their frontman. Furthermore, I cringe every time that they refer to themselves with the self-created, misleading title of "edge rock." Their music really isn't edgy at all, and if "edge rock" were to be a genre, I can imagine it not sounding like this, which at best is mainly alternative rock and pop punk.

All that said, there are a few tracks scattered throughout their discography that I enjoy. A handful of tracks on Tone of Echoes are fairly decent, and some of their early pop punk work is pretty good. There's just a fair amount of negative outweighing anything good they have going for them at the moment, but I am keeping my eye on them, since it certainly isn't impossible that they actually drop a truly decent or even great album at some point.

That point just hasn't come yet.

Just my honest thoughts. :P

It really surprises me that someone created an Eyeshine thread, I really didn't think too many people liked their music. Of course, I'm sure many people would be interested, mostly due to their frontman, Johnny Yong Bosch, who probably is my favourite English Voice Actor.

I actually met Johnny Yong Bosch at a con recently. I didn't get to see them perform, unfortunately, but I did manage to purchase two of their albums (got them signed, too), namely My Paper Kingdom and Revolution Airwaves, the latter on Johnny's recommendation when he found out that I'm more into metal than alternative rock.

At the moment, those are the only Eyeshine albums that I have heard, and, honestly, they're not really that impressive. The music is mostly quite generic, although they do have their unique moments. But that's not to say that I don't like them. I do, and out of the albums that I have, I have to say that my favourite is My Paper Kingdom, although production-wise, Revolution Airwaves is a lot better.

Let me explain. I like My Paper Kingdom better because the songs are more amateur. Amateur would be a more fitting term than progressive, anyway. However, the album really does have more of a progressive edge than that of Revolution Airwaves, making it a much more interesting listen. They were still experimenting with their sound when they recorded that album, and I find it interesting to see how they pieced together certain musical idea's that don't really fit well together, and still make it sound good.

Revolution Airwaves on the other hand, is a pretty standard pop-punk album. I said that the album is better production-wise, and it is. The mixing is better, evereything sounds really tight, and even Johnny's vocals are a lot better on this album. However the amateurish stuff is still there, this time in the form of incredibly lame screaming (which I suspect is why Johnny recommended it to me), and rather than making it more intense, it just sounds silly. All the songs follow the same generic formula, and every time a song tries to build up to something big, it just collapses when it's supposed to culminate in some form of musical epicness. The album does boast one bright spot, however, in the form of a song called "Take Me Away", which actually captures the desired feel quite well. It's also my favourite Eyeshine song of them all.

Having said all that, I actually really like these albums. It's partly because it reminds me of a fun con at which I met Johnny Yong Bosch, partly because some people I know are somewhat jealous of my having them, and partly because the music is actually enjoyable on occasion. If you're a fan of Johnny Yong Bosch, you'll definitely want to check them out at some point. Just don't set your hopes too high, and check out their earlier stuff if you're not really a pop-punk fan.

>>2 I didn't know we had an Eyeshine thread already, but then again, I was too lazy to look for it in the long list of bands/singers/random music topics...

I do agree with you that Eyeshine only got some of their fame due to Johnny Yong Bosch, which, I'll admit, was the reason I decided to listen to them too.

I had bought My Paper Kingdom and Tone of Echoes a few cons ago and thought they were pretty good. Then I found out that it was considered to be their best albums they've done, which I didn't know at the time. These were the only albums I listened to and I assumed that they sounded like this all the time.

Thanks for replying to this thread anyway. :)

>>3 Johnny is admittedly my fav English dub actor too. X3

I also met Johnny and Eyeshine at a con over the summer and even got to high-five every member of the band. This was a fun con for me due to that.

Anyway, thanks for the song recommendation and the reply. I'm glad that fellow fans (though your comments were brutally honest) want to discuss them with me! :)