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October 27, 2023

Cleveland Metal Act Eyes of Your Eyes Receiving National Attention

By Jeff Niesel | Cleveland Scene
Published November 28, 2023

In the wake of the recent premiere of the new music video of the drumcorps remix of "Magnetron," a song that's on the band's new EP, the Lakewood-based metal band Eyes of Your Eyes has started to receive national acclaim.

“Drumcorps is an electronic music legend,” says band leader Abel Autopsy in an email exchange about the new release and the band's surging popularity. “My friend, the very talented visual designer Scott Brown has steered the visual direction of this project, from the cover art to the website to our logos and branding, capturing his signature 'dystopian future grit' vibe. The energy is very high and real. It's electric in a way I've never felt before. Recently, I was so moved and overwhelmed with thankfulness I collapsed in my computer chair in my editing room and wanted to weep because of all of these hyper-skilled people showing up, being so generous with their talents and time, and helping this insane little music project from Cleveland come to life and completely elevating all of it. Never in a million years did I think it would work out this well.”

Success has been a long time coming for Abel Autopsy, who says he became interested in both national and local metal and electronic acts years ago.

“In my teens, I became enamored by both nu-metal and electronic dance music/dark pop bands such as Slipknot, Static-X, and Cleveland's own Nine Inch Nails and Mushroomhead,” he says. “I also gravitated toward computers and synthesizers as a youngster, and developed a burning need to figure out how to fuse those sonics together. Little did I know that all of this would drastically and fundamentally shape and reshape my entire life."

One his favorite bands as a teenager was the underground band 16volt. A friendship would emerge with the band’s Eric Powell.

“I fell in love with 16volt albums LetDownCrush and SuperCoolNothing – the collision of seething anger, hooky choruses, slick synths, drum machines, and 7-string guitars were a magic combination, and to this day I still consider those very future forward albums,” says Abel Autopsy.

He and Powell began collaborating after he showed Powell what he was recording in his basement with a very rudimentary setup.

“He really took me under his wing and guided me; not just with his industry knowledge and navigation tips, but sonic design and editing prowess,” says Abel Autopsy. “This ultimately led to me co-writing on two 16volt releases. We’re still great friends and writing partners to this day. There’s an upcoming 16volt release that has my sonic fingerprints all over it. I love that he has always allowed me to explore new territory and do creative things that I may not be able to touch otherwise. There are no boundaries. We’ll resample and resynthesize old bits from demos over and over and create completely new textures out of them in a mad scientist fashion – that total DIY aesthetic that old-school industrial music was grown from.”

Another friendship that’s led to some significant artistic output is Autopsy Club, which features Matt Brown (A Pale Horse Named Death, Seventh Void) and Abel Autopsy.

“We’ve spent years swapping audio hardware geek stories as well as discussing music production and mixing techniques," Abel Autopsy says of that project. "He’s a brilliant mix engineer who has worked extensively with legends such as Joan Jett and Lou Reed, and we released our debut single and music video, 'The Oracle,' in 2022. The style is very ’90s electronic dark pop with an alternative modern edge. We have a few more singles in development that we’re polishing to perfection.”

And that's not all. One of the foundation-level employees at a major synthesizer company, Pittsburgh Modular, Abel Autopsy also creates “symphonic songs” as Conduit Closing.

“[That project] is dedicated to that entire side of creative output – symphonic songs, crafted with the help of custom electronics that are ready-made for video games and film,” he says of Conduit Closing.

Some of the Conduit Closing material was sourced for a short film, The Third Experience, created by friend (and director of the Eyes of Your Eyes "Magnetron" music video) Aeyron Moore. The film was nominated for a Cannes Short Film Festival award.

“I couldn’t be happier for him and his team,” says Abel Autopsy. “He’s definitely a huge talent and his work deserves to be known.

Abel Autopsy says that these musical projects all stem from his desire to create what he calls “stupidheavy,” a genre of extreme metal.

"It's actually a tag we use on some of our releases,” he says. “[It means] a thorough sonic pummeling with little discernible or identifiable note content – absolutely primal. [I want to] completely invert the relationship between melody and rhythm. After a long time of creating formulaic, song-driven electronic rock and dark pop in 16volt, it became quickly apparent that my background in sound design, synthesis and anthem-driven songwriting did not lend itself directly to this style of absolute and utter chaos. I could get the ambiences and atmospherics right as well as the vocal delivery, but there was a huge missing element."

It was at that point that he stumbled across his Sleep Blackheart, his writing partner for Eyes of Your Eyes and immediately understood the whole concept and vision.

"It was almost like destiny," he says. "We wrote 'Divinempty' and just kept going, getting increasingly wilder with each song," Abel Autopsy says. "I have to say, ever since launching Eyes of Your Eyes, door after door has opened for us. We are so unbelievably humbled. So many stellar people have stepped in to help us."

Eyes of Your Eyes is currently at work on new material; a full-length is due out next year. And even though national attention has come the band's way, Abel Autopsy continues to find his inspiration in Cleveland.

"People sleep on this city, but it has such a real vibe and such a vibrant art scene," he says. "One of my favorite things to do it to go to one of the local cemeteries and meditate. It sounds macabre, but it's actually quite tranquil and beautiful. I walk and bike around Lakewood a lot, and people have been so friendly and understanding. I love to knowledge share and help out where I can. I know I can be pretty unusual and awkward at times, but seem to blend in with the rest of the diverse landscape here. As someone who is nomadic by nature and who recharges his batteries by disappearing into his studio, it’s refreshing to step outside and feel a sense of belonging and community."