From the rainy Stavanger southwest of Norway, the melodic thrash/death metal band Sublime Eyes has constantly moved towards larger scenes and a larger audience. They have shared a poster with some of metal’s bigger actors – and no matter where Sublime Eyes play the audience are left with sore necks and a vitamin injection one has barely seen.
Rob Mules Records had a sit down with the guys in Sublime Eyes. They were calm, they talked. No headbanging.
Who are Sublime Eyes, and what’s the story behind your band name?
Sublime Eyes are a groovy and melodic death/thrash metal band from the rainy shores of Stavanger. The band was formed back in 2007 by guitarist Tom Arild and former drummer Remy as a pure melodic death metal act, but over the years the band’s sound has grown, and developed into the thrashing and shredding beast it is today.
The name “Sublime Eyes” are the eyes that sees everything, omniscient, all knowing.
Judge, jury, and executioner.
We are Sublime Eyes.
Your album is titled Corrocean and consists of eight tracks. In short, give a presentation of each track: how it came about, lyrics etc.
‘We Must Unite’ is the opener and fastest track on the album. In your face and to the point! It is about neglecting that what we do and how we act against mother earth. That she might just wipe us out one day.
‘Med Tiden Gror’ is our black metal song, or the closest we come to one on the album, and as you probably guessed by the title…it’s in Norwegian! The song describes when someone is lost and the only person that can help him is himself.
‘Dark Waves’ is the longest and last track on Corrocean. Epic melodic death metal. Shreddy guitars. Blastbeats. It’s all there. Epic is the keyword here. Dark waves is about people with depression and dark thoughts, but still tries to hide it behind a smile.
‘Follow The Brave’ is our anthem and sing along song. Melodic, groovy and thrashy with an epic chorus. It’s about being a strong person and learn from past mistakes. Leave the ones that bring you down and focus on what lays ahead.
‘King Of Suffering’ is a slower paced, crushing and BIG sounding song. It is about breaking out of an religion after being brainwashed your whole life.
‘Left In The Dark’. Thrashing, melodic and brutal! It’s a beauty! The song is about people that can’t stay away from drugs and gets left out by family and friends.
‘Ocean Cries’ is the slowest and most HEAVY track on Corrocean. Dark , ominous and heavy! Did we mention it is heavy? It’s about animal cruelty and how we let the ocean suffer for our own benefits.
‘Beneath the Black’ is probably the grooviest track on the album, and is about the hardship of being a failed pirate.
Lasse Lammert/LSD Studio has mixed and mastered your album. What is the story behind it?
Lasse Lammert is a world-renowned producer & engineer at LSD studios. A real wizard within the trade. He has worked with bands like Warrel Dane, Alestorm, Gloryhammer amongst others. He mixed & mastered our previous release “Sermons & Blindfolds”. He’s just a very chill and cool dude that knows what he is doing, and what he did on Corrocean is just amazing! A true metal wizard!
Tell us about the cover art? Who is Costin Chioreanu?
Costin is a great artist from Romania who has worked with bands like At the gates, Einherjer, Leprous and Ghost just to mention a few. We saw some of his earlier work and just loved his style. Great guy and super easy to work with! The album art is inspired by the album title Corrocean and the music it self. The album title Corrocean is a play on words made up from Corrosion and Ocean. Some of the themes on the album is about the decline of the earth and mankind. How man keep polluting and destroying the planet. So the earth/sea is kind of “rusting”.
What’s in store for Sublime Eyes the coming year? Any tours planned?
The plan is to release Corrocean upon the world, tour and play as much as possible. Show everybody our new kickass music. We had a tour with Blood Red Throne and our label mates Deception earlier this year. We got some shows lined up at the moment, and the plan is to have a release gig here in Stavanger for the album, but we can’t give away too much details just yet. Just hang in there!
Can you tell us about your influences, bands you like?
Sublime Eyes started out as a pure melodic death metal outfit in the style of At The Gates, old In Flames and Dimension Zero. We still like those bands, but over the years as our tastes in music grew and the line-up changed, so did our music. For the better we think. We have a lot of music in common, and music we don’t have in common at all, but that’s a positive thing we think. The band is still developing because of it. Check out our playlist on Spotify, and you will get a better impression of the music we are into,
Band photo: Rebecca Eva Perry
Visit Sublime Eyes at Facebook. Below you can listen to their brutal and trashy mixtape!