Through The Eyes of the Dead Interview

Through the Eyes of The Dead have their own blend of melodic death metal that made their first EP "Through The Scars Of Ages" immensely popular amongst metal audiences and with plenty of touring all would soon to realize that this band is good at what they do. Despite numerous line up changes and shaky luck on the road regarding van reliability, the band are still trekking their way in support of their new album "Bloodlust" which hits stores October 25th, the band's debut on Prosthetic Records. The Gauntlet had the opportunity to speak to one of the band's original members, guitarist Justin Longshore about the band's upcoming album, van breakdowns, and abundant line up changes that never seem to phase this band as stay ahead of their misfortunes to bring you some of the finest death metal of today.

The Gauntlet: How's the tour doing?

Justin Longshore: We are headed to North Carolina right now we are on tour with the read death. Yeah we had a few van problems but we are doing good now, we were on tour with ion dissonance but they dropped off in main. We've had some van trouble so things have been pretty hectic we've been through three vans now, the first caught fire and burned all of our personal belongings but luckily none of our equipment got hit, the Second one had some mechanical difficulties and kept overheating so now we are on the third and it seems to be working well.

The Gauntlet: What do you guys have planned for after this tour?

Justin Longshore: We are taking a break from November 5th until November and 27, then we are going on tour with the Classic Struggle and the Knife Trade are actually really good friends of ours so it should be a lot of fun.

The Gauntlet: You guys put out a split with Knife Trade, are there any songs on that split that have been redone for the full length?

Justin Longshore: We did 4 songs total for the split with Knife Trade, "Truest Shade of Crimson" will be on the full length, we redid that one for the full length, it's the only one appearing from the split.

The Gauntlet: How did the signing to Prosthetic come about?

Justin Longshore: We released the EP in December of 2003, Love Lost released that then we released a split a year later because we didn't have enough material to write a full length so we did the split with Knife Trade and Love Lost released that as well. We were getting looked at by a few labels, Metal Blade, Abacus, and Prosthetic, we demoe'd our material for Metal Blade but they never got back to us. Prosthetic ended up giving us the best deal so we went to them. Prosthetic have been really good to us and have been really supportive of the tour and our new album.

The Gauntlet: Do you guys find yourselves being thrown into the metalcore category often? Because I find Through The Eyes of The Dead to be different than that, with a lot more death metal influence.

Justin Longshore: Most of our audience is metalcore and we played with a lot of metalcore bands but we incorporate a lot of different influences and elements. I don't really think we are a metalcore band, metalcore really likes us but i mean y'know anyone can take us to that label too. I think we are more of the melodic death metal, but y'know everyone's going to have their own different opinions of the genres.

The Gauntlet: You guys have been quite a few drummers in that Spinal Tap sort of way, who is your current drummer?

Justin Longshore: Josh Kulick is our drummer now, Josh is from Kansas. We actually picked him up through the internet. He sent us a video of himself playing when we were in search of another drummer at the time and he sent us a video of him playing one of our songs so there was no competition we had to get him.

The Gauntlet: Who are the original members of the band now?

Justin Longshore: I am one of the original members and our singer Anthony is too, everyone else wasn't into touring or wasn't dedicated at all so they just like quit. Our old drummer never toured with us, he's played on the EP and the split but never toured with us, and our bassist, his first tour with us was just a few months ago and he left in the middle of tour, he got a plane ticket to Arizona and left. The line up we have now has been going well, we have a lot more talent now than we have before and the musicianship is a lot better than it was.

The Gauntlet: Would you say "Bloodlust" is a continuation of material from the EP and the split or does it differ?

Justin Longshore: Well I mean the EP and the split are actually opposites in my opinion. The split is more death metal in my opinion than our full length. The full length blends both of them, and we add more elements as well but I think it's a lot more mature than previous material.

The Gauntlet: The material is more matured, in regards to song writing?

Justin Longshore: Definitely, I mean we have had a lot of different influences over the years so we definitely matured in song writing. We are getting better as musicians too and exploring more, and uh what's the word�well just exploring more pretty much (laughs).

The Gauntlet: Are there tour plans after the upcoming tour with The Classic Struggle already laid out?

Justin Longshore: We are on tour until December 16th and we are still getting offers for January still so 2006 is pretty much up in the air for now.

The Gauntlet: I caught you guys live once, you were using 7 strings.

Justin Longshore: On our EP we didn't but ever since the split we started using them. They are much easier than six strings when it comes to tuning down, the 7 strings are already tuned down to B and we enjoy that.

The Gauntlet: Do you guys do a lot of drinking on tour, any crazy moments?

Justin Longshore: We usually have long drives so we are just bored all day pretty much, we are pretty boring actually (laughs). I've been reading a lot lately I know that's not very metal but�. (laughs) we try to find things to occupy ourselves because a show is not even 10 to 20% of the day but we find things to do to keep ourselves busy.

The Gauntlet: Is Prosthetic planning to team you guys up with other Prosthetic bands?

Justin Longshore: We actually were supposed to go out on tour with All That Remains but they ended up joining the Arch Enemy tour so they couldn't do it. That was supposed to be during our tour with the Classic Struggle, we were going to do half the tour with the Classic Struggle and then do the other half of the tour with All That Remains. So now we are doing the entire Classic Struggle tour.

The Gauntlet: That's about it on my end man, anything you would like to add?

Justin Longshore: Make sure everyone picks up the new record "Bloodlust" on October 25th on prosthetic and metal up your ass.


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Tags:  Through The Eyes of the Dead  , Justin Longshore, interviews

Dave Huffy    October 14, 2005