Eyelet – The Devil Shining Out Your Eyes LP (Various Labels)

To be completely honest, this is my first encounter with this band. Eyelet is a screamo hardcore trio hailing from Baltimore, Maryland. The Devil Shining Out Your Eyes is their second full-length recording, published as a result of a collaboration between labels such as Zegema Beach Records, i.corrupt Records, and The Ghost Is Clear Records. Since their formation, Eyelet has published a debut self-titled EP, debut full-length named Nervewrecker, a single-sided 10″ called Error(s), a split release with Gillian Carter, and another split release with Terry Green, Kid Feral, Big Water entitled Meditations In Affinity: Confluence. As you can see, Eyelet was pretty much active in the past years by consecutively publishing releases since 2014.

What drew my attention to give a listen to this band is their aesthetics. The group nurtures horrific, obscure, macabre, and chaotic visual imagery on almost all their recordings, but this one unquestionably gives some chills down the spine. The front cover unveils an almost disfigured, distorted, unrecognizable entity that lacks eyes and mouth. The visual identity is fitting nicely with the musical aesthetics, so Eyelet nailed with this artwork. It unveils all the evilness, grimness, horror, hysteria, desperation, depression, melancholia in some twisted but unique manner. This collection of mixed emotions and states of mind is gradually building up the dark atmosphere, which Eyelet apparently tries to achieve with The Devil Shining Out Your Eyes.

Besides predominant screamo articulations, you may hear how Eyelet explores other genres throughout the entire album. You’ll stumble upon the elements of melodic hardcore, mathcore, metalcore, sludge, post-metal, and post-rock. The Devil Shining Out Your Eyes showcases the tremendous songwriting, composing, and musicianship of the entire group. Each composition acts as a thoughtfully structured sonic equation, performed with precision and so much sense for balance among the actual songs. However, this mathematical precision is suddenly turning out into full-blown chaos that vividly illustrates the abovementioned collection of emotions. Then the group comes like the calm after the storm with a full specter of beautiful melodic themes that may sound melancholic at some points, but that might not be necessary the case. Their sense for composing goes beyond comprehension during the entire recording, and it’s nearly mindblowing how they stacked all these ideas into a singular album.

If you’re a newbie to the sound of Eyelet like me, you’ll probably keep spinning this vinyl a thousand times or keep digging even deeper into their preceding recordings. Eyelet deserves your utmost attention in every possible way, and The Devil Shining Out Your Eyes demonstrates how modern hardcore groups should sound in the 21st century. The Devil Shining Out Your Eyes comes on assorted color vinyl records. Head over to Zegema Beach Records, i.corrupt Records, or The Ghost Is Clear Records for more information about ordering.