YELLOW EYES

two brothers brought together by black metal. clearly a disney movie waiting to happen

it WAS black metal that reunited brothers Will and Sam Skarstad, Yellow Eyes’ guitarists and songwriters. “The break began when I was a high school metalhead,” remembers younger brother Will. “Sam was… the opposite.” “We had some vicious arguments,” agrees Sam, at the time more a fan of the Beach Boys than blastbeats. Years later, both were travelling Europe separately, finally meeting up in Prague. Will took Sam to a black metal gig. “It suddenly made sense to me – it was channelling something I’d never felt,” enthuses Sam. Now splitting their time between New York and a cabin they use for writing/recording, fourth album Rare Field Ceiling represents the culmination of 10 years’ experimentation – unifying melodic hooks with raw chaos.

“Our differences are our engine,” says Sam, and Yellow Eyes are bolstered by drummer Mike Rekevics and bassist Alex Demaria. With a UK tour pencilled in for spring 2020, they’re currently holed up, plotting. “I want to see what happens if we forget our rules,” says Will. “We don’t have high production values, but we do have a sense of adventure; we’re willing to experiment and fail. How black metal is that?”

RARE FIELD CEILING is out now via gilead Media