Video Premiere + Interview: Eyes of Perdition – “When Deeply Ingrained Traumas Spill Forth Like Maggots in Carrion”

photo: Krook9

Eyes of Perdition call Las Vegas home, but don’t expect them to land a residency at the Sands anytime soon. Their uncompromising hardcore/slam hybrid is as punishing and bone-dry as mid afternoon under the Mojave sun. Led by chameleonic frontwoman Lindsay O. (Coma Cluster Void, Natalia), the band was opening circle pits in Sin City’s seedier dives from their formation in 2019 until … well, you know. Now, as live shows again loom on the horizon, they’re reemerging with their first studio EP, the punishing Incendiary Truths.

The songs on Incendiary Truths sit squarely in the gloriously ignorant lineage of Internal Bleeding, with some of the desert-scorched vibes of Xibalba and Gatecreeper thrown in for good measure. The closing track, “When Deeply Ingrained Traumas Spill Forth Like Maggots in Carrion,” was the first taste of the EP we got, and now, we’re premiering the no-frills music video for that track. Check it out below, along with an interview with Lindsay O.

How did Eyes of Perdition first get together?
We formed in spring 2019; the guys have played together in previous bands, and then got together to start a new project. I had just moved to Las Vegas from North Hollywood. I was looking for people to jam with, and met Chasen (guitar / bass). I went down to the infamous Alamo rehearsal studios in downtown Las Vegas and threw down some vocals one night, and the rest is history!

The EP lives somewhere on the spectrum between beatdown hardcore and slam death metal. What’s your background with each of those genres?
I grew up listening to a lot of hardcore (Black Flag, Minor Threat, TSOL, etc.) and grindcore bands, so my vocal sensibilities are definitely informed by those genres; I started delving into metal (Cryptopsy, Bolt Thrower, Entombed, etc.) around the same time, so there’s this natural meld of those genres in my approach and performances.  Later, I dove head first into brutal death and slam, layering that in with everything. Musically, we’re really diverse in our individual preferences, but we meet up in our love for slam and hardcore, and I think that really defines our sound.

You’ve cited Henry Rollins, Mike Patton, and Karyn Crisis as vocal heroes. What aspects of their work do you find have inspired your own singing?
Rollins, Karyn, and Mike are so incredible to me because they are just themselves, they’re outliers – there will never be another Henry Rollins, for example. He’s inspired so many, including myself, by just daring to do what he wants, the way he wants to do it, lyrically and vocally. I love the honesty in Rollins’ performances; he’s so sheer in what he says, and yet it’s in that vulnerability that you find so much power (I mean listen to “The End of Silence” and tell me that’s not one of the most powerful albums ever!).

With Karyn, Crisis (the band) was one of the first metal bands I ever got into. I discovered “Deathshead Extermination” and at that time, I’d never heard anything like it – it was so incredibly dark, moving, and cathartic that it inspired me to think of music as a wholly cathartic experience, rather than just an entertaining one or a backdrop to life. And I think that underscores my approach to everything I do vocally.

Photo: Krook9

You’re from Las Vegas, a place that a lot of people think they know because they’ve been to the Strip. What’s it like to live there as a local, and how does the city impact the music you make?
Vegas is an interesting place. Truth be told, locals rarely if ever go to the strip, so we get our kicks in the mountains and surrounding areas where there’s a lot of space and groundedness. It’s easy to get caught up in bullshit here however, so you have to be street tough and keep yourself together as much as you can. I think Vegas “rough” is pretty damn rough – there’s a true sadness to it.

That said, combining that edge with the spacious beauty of Nevada breeds a lot of interesting art. I think musically, we don’t have the pressure to conform –  there’s not like this echo chamber of similar bands, so we draw influence from our individual creative perspectives, and it’s really easy to create something new and fresh when you have the space to do so like we have here.

You’re involved in a lot of different musical projects, each with their own focus. What does playing with Eyes of Perdition fulfill for you creatively?
Eyes of Perdition lets me focus on externalizing everything I experience with a lot of brute force! The other projects I am involved with (Coma Cluster Void, Catenation, MOSTRO, Natalia, etc.) are very complex, evocative, genius projects, for sure, but I love that Eyes of Perdition allows me the opportunity to just be extremely raw and unapologetic.

“When Deeply Ingrained Traumas Spill Forth Like Maggots in Carrion” is an absolute ass-beater of a song. How did that one come together, and how did you decide it would be the first single the project would release?
Thank you! That’s our collective fave as a band, so we decided we wanted this to be the first single we introduced to the world, as a “this is who the fuck we are.” That was one of the first songs I ever wrote with the band in 2019; I think it really encapsulates what we’re currently doing musically, and the direction we’ll continue to push and evolve from as we go forward.

In the video we’re premiering for the song today, the band is playing together in a room. That looks like a room I want to be in! Do you guys have post-pandemic plans to get back onstage in front of an audience yet?
It’s our panic room! Just kidding – we are so excited to have a couple of fun runs coming up in 2022 – and definitely as soon as it’s safe, we want to take our sonically abusive musical tendencies to as many cities as possible. Hope to see everyone out there soon!