Through the Eyes of the Dead’s Only Constant Is Member Change

For 'Skepsis,' Through the Eyes of the Dead welcome a new singer (Danny Rodriguez), a new drummer (Mike Ranne) and a new guitarist (Chris 'Hank' Henckel). Guitarist and only original member Justin Longshore isn't too upset by the changes, since he has been on tour nonstop for three or four years and being in a state of constant motion.

"The new guys have been in for a year and have a different approach and attitude," Longshore told Noisecreep. "They want to be here and it shows." It's the attitude of the new dudes that kept the band going! "We thought about it, definitely," Longshore admitted, regarding the prospect of giving up. "It was hard to grasp that thought, since we put hard work and dedication into the band, but we thought about it when our drummer and vocalist quit. I thought, 'I guess this is it?' The vocalist is the personality of a band and the spotlighted person, per-se. We thought about it at that point. You can always find someone who plays instruments. It's harder when there is a new voice and face to get used to. It's harder for fans to grasp a new person in the center of the stage, but it has been going well with Danny."

Another thing that helped the band to forge ahead was their tour history and the simple concept of the point of no return. "We've toured nonstop since 2005 and we keep going," Longshore said. "If someone doesn't want to be with the group, that can't affect us. We wrote a lot of music before those guys left. So it was not a huge change. It was not one guy writing it all and then quitting."

Rodriguez is a choice find for TTEOTD, because for 'Skepsis,' which is the band's third for Prosthetic, he combines the old and the new. "We had Anthony on first record, and he was all high-pitched screams," Longhore pointed out. "Our second vocalist, Nate Johnson, was in the lower territory. And Danny is a mixture of that, but has his own thing going on! He has the highs that we missed from first singer and the lows that Nate was known for."

Another thing Rodriguez brought to the table was his lyrical concept. "I didn't help with lyrics and I usually do that," Longshore said. "Danny came up with a cool concept and he wrote every lyric on the CD, which is a first for us. When Nate came in, we had already written all of 'Malice.' He had a few songs and we had to write lyrics in the studio. Danny was prepared and there for the writing process, so it was more comfortable."

'Skepsis' is out Feb. 2.