DIGGING STUFF UP: Eyelet - 'The Devil Shining Out Your Eyes'

The annus horribilis of 2020 had something up its filthy sleeve for its final day.

EYELET
’The Devil Shining Out Your Eyes’
Zegema Beach Records, i.corrupt Records, The Ghost Is Clear Records

Yeah, I don’t specify the depths these things must be buried for me to go dig them up, it doesn’t have to be all overlooked gems from like 35 years ago. This remarkable beast of a record came out a year and a half ago, on the very last day of The Year We Don’t Talk About (let me specify that, because those seem to be piling up now: 2020), but I only came across it, and Eyelet themselves, quite recently, and blessed/cursed be that little Bandcamp trawl that produced it before my ears. I’ve since investigated and went back to hear this Maryland trio’s previous, debut album ‘Nervewracker‘, and some other smaller releases they’ve put out (I’ve become quite fond of their little self-titled debut EP, for instance), and while they are all very much up my street, that incendiary kind of furious but still melodic and catchy screamo, this album seems to signal a very important turning point for them.

It’s all in the heaviness, you see. And the darkness. Usually the two demons that seem to fling bands my way, so it makes sense that I’ve come across these people only recently. Whereas their previous stuff was by no means light, or even light-hearted, as soon as that crushing low-end rumble makes itself known at the very beginning of opener ‘Sap’, you realise that this is going to be a much rockier ride into hell. To use an analogy with two well-known bands (and two that I love), it’s kinda like they left Defeater territory and are now boldly striding across Trap Them lands. Know what I mean? There’s a meaner, more metallic streak across these songs, and it’s an attitude and a sound that suits the imagery, both lyrically and what the music itself evokes, absolutely perfectly.

It seems to have been a very organic, natural move too, because they haven’t really abandoned their style - much of the songwriting is still anchored in those razor-sharp, bittersweet melodies of the riffs, as it patently obvious in the title-track up here, for instance, perhaps the closest one to their older material. The shift is more in the intensity, heaviness and just downright nastiness of the whole ensemble. So much so that the songs have even gotten slightly shorter, in general, than they used to be, it’s like they used to play them while really pissed off, and now they’re really pissed off while a pack of rabid wolves is chasing them across a burned down forest. Oh, and the wolves win in the end - also in true Trap Them style (please be aware I know this sustained comparison is slightly exaggerated, but I miss TT so bear with me), monstrous closer ‘Adrift’, which by itself runs the length of two or three of their usual songs, is their own ‘Scars Align’ / ‘Mission Convincers’, that one last thick nail on the coffin which kicks the remaining teeth out your mouth with malicious glee.

The best news is that this seems to be a direction they will follow, at least if the two songs they have contributed to a fantastic brand new 6-Way split alongside Hawak, Joliette, Our Future Is An Absolute Shadow (aka OFIAAS), Elle and Burial Etiquette are anything to go by. The first of the two in particular, ‘Couldn’t Bury Hurt’, is a 3:38 “epic”, almost atmospheric in its relentless progression.

So, go do it. Listen to ‘The Devil Shining Out Your Eyes’ first, I’d recommend, and then branch out from there. You won’t be sorry.

Tracklist:
01. Sap – 3:05
02. The Devil Shining Out Your Eyes – 2:00
03. See How You Writhe – 2:59
04. Unborn - 2:04
05. When I Am Turned To Stone - 3:01
06. Thick Water - 1:58
07. Inevitability - 1:37
08. Erosion Of Everything - 1:50
09. Succession Of The Asphodels - 2:10
10. Adrift - 5:36

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