Exclusive Interview With Through The Eyes Of The Dead

US death metal giants, Through the Eyes of the Dead, are set to unleash their latest venture into brutality, Skepsis. I spoke to vocalist, Danny Rodriguez, about his band’s new album, his adaption to the band, the decline of the music industry and the backlash from conservatives.

Your new album is called Skepsis. What’s the meaning behind the title?

The album is an idea/story I made up about a schizophrenic who believes that reality is an illusion, created by unseen spiritual forces who control humanity and whose priority is to lead them to an inevitable damnation. The main character has a re-occurring dream of the apocalypse and as his paranoia grows, he begins to communicate with these forces. He has a vision of himself being submerged in the underworld of souls, where an omen “enlightens” him. He then believes that if he channels that omen he can inherit celestial, “godlike” powers, and that if he uses them to sacrifice humans to the omen, he’ll be spared from his own damnation. The “omen” forces him to kill people and drink himself to death. He then has a vision of himself going back to the underworld, only this time he’s being tortured by the spirits and the omen tells him that he was deceived and that damnation would be his final resting place. He then awakes in a white room – at first thinking it was only a dream – only to realize he has no sight, no sense of sound, no sense of smell, etc. He’s alone and all he sees is white – he’s in his own personal hell for eternity. So in reality, his schizophrenia killed him. Skepsis is a philosophic doubt as to the objective reality of phenomena – his Skepsis of reality was the “Omen”.

Wow. That’s actually an incredible story. Next question, what have you done musically different on Skepsis?

I think there’s a bit more progression on this record. There are some songs that have more of a Bloodlust feel and other songs that have more of a Malice feel. Then there are a handful of songs that stand out as their own. You’ll definitely be able to tell the growth in musicianship on Skepsis.

The music industry is currently being turned on its head, and as a result many labels and musicians are disappearing. Do you ever fear that you may have to pack up your instruments and head home to get a regular 9-5 job?

I’m sure that’s something that every music artist thinks about at least once. When we’re not on tour, we are working that 9-5 job, and all that fun, and excitement you’re used to everyday being on tour is gone – you’re not cool anymore (laughs). I personally know that every member in this band has the same goal right now – and that is to push this thing as far as it will go, so we don’t have to work that 9-5 job till we’re 55 years old. So yeah the thought of calling it quits on this band is something we don’t like to think about, but also strive to avoid.

Through the Eyes of the Dead have cited Cannibal Corpse as one of their main influences. Do you guys ever look at Cannibal Corpse album artwork and think, “Wow! We have to better this and shock the pants off of people”?

(Laughs) Nowadays the whole brutal and gory artwork in metal is so cliché – it’s like a pentagram (laughs). So I think for us, it’s more of trying to capture the feel and vibe of the music on the CD itself, and portray it visually. If we have artwork that portrays the feeling of the music as good as possible, we’re happy – even if it doesn’t have a severed chick on the cover (laughs).

Danny, it’s been over a year that you’ve been the vocalist of the band. How have you adapted to it?

I think I’ve adapted well. I knew coming into this band that I had to fill the shoes of two highly praised vocalists, and I had to do it perfectly. Let’s face it, most fans worshiped Anthony for his high range vocals and others worshiped Nate for his awesome lows. I knew I had to work hard to cover both ranges and add my own style – I think I’ve done that.

In South Africa, we have quite a lot of conservative people. They actually managed to complain and force a venue to cancel hosting a Devil Driver show, because of the band’s name. How do you guys deal with the backlash that you receive regarding your band’s name and genre of music?

I think that people who are unfamiliar with this genre and listen to it for the first time probably get confused (laugh). Death metal is an acquired taste, and it’s so easy to strike it down as “devil music” just because of the intensity in the music as well as the vocal style. We just deal with it as, if you don’t like what you hear, there are plenty of other genres of music you could listen to without having to shut down ours and classify it as “satanic”.

Find out more info on Through the Eyes of the Dead at their official MySpace page and Twitter account. Their new album, Skepsis, is scheduled for a February 2010 release through Prosthetic Records.

- Sergio Pereira
sergio@musicreview.co.za
Join MusicReview on Facebook