Band: Eyes of Salt
From: Denver, Colorado
Their formatiom story:
(David, guitar): "We all got together to form what’s currently Eyes of Salt right after going mad during COVID in summer of 2021. We’ve had a few lineup changes and setbacks but stuck with it and now have a solid lineup consisting of myself, Gary (vocals), Ryan (bass), Jacob (guitar), and Chris (drums).
"Gary and Ryan previously were in Line Brawl together here in Denver and called it quits after a great run. David’s known Gary for almost two decades and always wanted to do a band with him and hadn’t played since his metalcore band (Left in the Fire) broke up in 2009/2010 and literally had to re-learn guitar. Jacob is also in another great band, Old Lung, and came up in the Oxnard / nardcore hardcore scene, which is great having an outside perspective versus just all Denver dudes. Chris hadn’t been in a hardcore band before this and blows our hair back how quickly he’s picked everything up, on top of being a cardiologist.
"We’re all in our 30s and have families and full-time jobs / careers, but are bonded by our love for hardcore and making music. We’re not trying to 'go for it' with Eyes of Salt, this a labor of love passion project and are doing this for the fun of it. But we take hardcore seriously and didn’t want to do this half-assessed. On top of that, Denver hardcore has never been as prolific as it is right now, and we wanted to get in on the fun. We have fucking awesome bands here and definitely push us to try to put out good shit."
Their sound in their own words:
"Since we started Eyes of Salt from scratch, we tried a few different things sonically. But ultimately zeroed in on a heavier, metallic hardcore mixed with some melodic hardcore sound, I guess.
"Hardcore has progressed a lot since we were kids in the mid-'00s, both production wise and compositionally. Bands like Life’s Question, Mindforce, Zulu, GEL, End It, Dead Heat, SPY, DRAIN, etc., are a few examples of that and have set the bar really high. But we all grew up on and love mid-'00s Deathwish and B9 more melodic hardcore and try to fold a lot of that into a more modern sound.
"For influences, we pull from a lot, from earlier hardcore (Gorilla Biscuits, Integrity, Youth of Today, Floorpunch, Madball, Agnostic Front), to melodic stuff (Modern Life is War, The Hope Conspiracy, Killing the Dream, Go it Alone, Sinking Ships, Comeback Kid), to old and new heavier shit (Hatebreed, Slayer, Sepultura, Allegiance, Ringworm, Trapped Under Ice, Incendiary, Strife)."
Newest release info:
"We just put our demo, we took our time writing these songs and fine tunning them. We recorded them with Austin Minney here in Denver and we’re pretty happy how they turned out. Two of the tracks on there are consistent with our melodic plus ass-beater mission ('Father of My Father' and 'Don’t Shed Your Tears'), and the third is just straight ass beater ('Timebomb').
"Our lyrics and the messaging in our songs was also very important to us, will continue to be. Hardcore is more than just pile on’s, beatdowns, and d-beats; we believe that it needs to actually stand for something and have something to say that relates to our everyday struggles’, otherwise it’s just rock 'n' roll with a lot of distortion. It’s up on all the music services, so go stream that shit (please)."
Future plans:
"Our first show was on March 17th in Denver for Faim’s record release. We were fucking stoked to get to play that, we’ve got a lot of respect for Faim and known them for a while. They put us on even though no one knew who the fuck we are and didn’t have music out no questions asked, so hopefully we don’t fuck up too bad. We also have two other gigs in late April we’re super stoked about too, check our IG for updates / flyers. We’d love to get out of Colorado at some point to play some shows.
"We’ve jumped right in to writing new songs. After our first run of shows we’re gonna focus on finishing new material for an EP this summer, would like to put that out sometime this fall and press on vinyl. Think we laid a good foundation with the demo, and just want to keep improving and turning up the intensity."
What other bands from their region should we check out?
"There’s a lot (in no particular order): Faim, Destiny Bond, Wide Man, Victim of Fire, Mindz Eye, Limbwrecker, Candy Apple, Cadaver Dog, Mouth For War, The Consequence, Public Opinion, Time X Heist, Edith Pike, Raw Breed, Wolfblitzer, Rukkus, and others we’re probably forgetting."
Eyes of Salt on social media: Instagram | Bandcamp
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Tagged: eyes of salt
