Eviscerate
Eidola - Los Angeles - February 26, 2026
As chatter continues, I decide to take a brief seat since there’s supposed to be a few more minutes until their set starts. It’d been a long day for me already. I had a lecture on how air pollutants can fluctuate in particulate size through coagulation and other things, I drove to LA, delt with driving in LA (why was someone going the wrong way towards me on a one way street?), running some errands, finding my first meal (a rainbow roll), my bumper falling off... As I begin to feel some relief off my feet, the lights dim. The introduction that’s kept me grounded for the past 3 years begins and I know every word... “Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable,” I think about my passion for engineering, my personal and professional resolve to find solutions, this driving force behind my existence, “and we believe they can do it again.” The curtains open. Cheers erupt. “And our own fortune with the uncrumpling determination of our people we will bring the inevitable triumph, so help us God.”
I discovered Eidola more slowly than I usually discover my favorite bands. My algorithm recommended me Empty Gardens and Counterfeit Shrines in late 2022, and I admittedly didn’t pay them much attention until June of the next year. I was particularly enthralled by their 2012 album The Great Glass Elephant. Year by year, I listened more and more and related more and more.
Two-thousand and twenty three, the year I turned the age I at one point never thought I’d reach: “Do you ever think about all the things you could become?” (Counterfeit Shrines, on the album “The Architect”)
Two-thousand and twenty four, my classes started getting a lot harder and things were changing within my family: “If you bend, it doesn’t mean you have to break”. (No Weapon Formed Shall Prosper, on the album “Eviscerate”)
Two-thousand and twenty five, a year that I am still processing: “I’ll embrace all the ways that I’m broken; cut my hands up collecting the shards. I won’t give up on me.” (Kaleidoscope, on the album “Mend”)
Every so often I go through their discography, and I’m not tired yet. I have changed so much since I first discovered them and they truly hold their own sound in the world of modern post-hardcore. I can very easily hear ways they’ve built on core tenants of the genre like dissonant chords and double pedals, as well as the rnb vocal influences common within this sub-genre, but one of my favorite things is piano at the forefront. So many people (including myself) start off with piano as their first instrument and I am always very happy to hear it (I have an entire tag on iBroadcast dedicated to songs notably including piano, and I’ve listened to What To Think About Again by away with words an absurd number of times for a 31-second-long piano track). Within Eviscerate in particular, the choir vocals emulative of various chanting traditions are intentionally woven throughout the album. I hear some Norma Jean and The Chariot influence, but maybe I’m projecting since I saw Norma Jean perform on that very stage...
I would have loved to see Mend as well but I had other obligations (if anyone would like to donate to my cause of flying out to Chicago for night two or Salt Lake City, my bank routing number is 856-).
And as always, it was a pleasure seeing Sergio Medina perform. Finally got to see the guitar bite in person, but I was too slow to get a photo. Speaking of which, this was a particularly challenging show for my photography, but the lights for all of the sets were magnificent. Astronoid’s lights were my favorite, plus they had a live synth so... naturally I loved it.
The Sacramento-based band NERV is also on tour with Eidola, and I’m wondering why I haven’t seen them already. They’re right up my alley. I snagged myself a CD :)
Usually halfway through a concert I’m pulled out of it with dreadful thoughts of my drive back but my mind was unincumbered by those thoughts this time. I was present for every moment and I was myself. I feel a little guilty for being my data-hoarding self (taking photos every time there’s lighting I find cool, recording stuff for me to watch again later) but I’m not sure why that guilt persists. I’m careful to not take up more space than I should be, I still support any crowdsurfers that come my way, and I sing along (to the lyrics I happen to remember in the moment). When I got back to my car, I IMMEDIATELY shoved the GORGEOUS Eviscerate CD into my stereo (who cares if I just saw it live, run it back), and started my drive home. Along the way my front bumper fell off, but honestly, I didn’t care too much. It had already been a tough day for me, a day that was but a brick in a tough week in a tough month in a tough 2026 so far (hence this first blog post of the year being in March), but honestly, I was at peace about it. I got my little post-show meal, had to fix my mudguard a bit in the parking lot of an In-N-Out while some dude having a smoke in his car watched me like I was a home improvement show. I got through Eviscerate in it’s entirety on the way back and started on Mend at about midnight. Somewhat poetic ending to my day, if I say so myself.
It’s more than a week later and I’ve spent a lot of time whittling down my listening back to the sounds that offer me some reprieve. I’ve been moving so fast for so long and things don’t seem to be slowing down for me any time soon and my listening habits have been all over the place in hopes of discovering some new thing to write about but all that movement just paralyzed me. I’ve been processing music like I’ve been processing life: things happen and I’m too busy thinking about what’s next and how I can apply the lesson from this present moment to do things differently tomorrow, but I don’t take time to knowledge how far I’ve come; I don’t gain that closure, which makes it difficult to properly move on.
“There was a time when I believed in myself but those days are over, I’m overwhelmed… I’m a lighthouse in the ocean with all the bulbs burnt out” (Restore Me feat. the afterhour)
“There’s so much life waiting for you on the other side / There’s so much light for you to see clearly when you open, open the door” (Godhead: The Final Temple)
I’ve enjoyed a variety of things over these past years, but I’d like to savor my favorites even more, even if it takes me a bit longer to create. My degree is very demanding and the demands continue to pile on, like a decadent, flaky croissant of stress. This year started off with a few deaths in my family, the tragic end of a friendship (which re-opened some wounds), and an assortment of financial, mental, and academic strains, but none of that is new to me. I’m not sure what moving more slowly and more intentionally and in the moment looks like, but I can’t afford to not try.
“Bring me to heel and humble me this day. I’ve said it all... Until we meet again” (Revelation: The Infinite Beauty in Oneness).
I’ve always pushed through. This time though, I’ve seen the detrimental effects more clearly through my body as well as my mind, and I’d like to listen. Seeing Eviscerate live without the conclusion of Mend hurt a lot. It felt incomplete but it made me realize that I need to mend.
“I can’t rebuild from a place of endless nothing” (Ashes in Gehinnom).
Hopefully someday I’ll see Mend live, but for now Eviscerate was enough.
New Releases
Meliora Debut EP
Last year I saw Meliora for the first time at their debut show, back then they were “Braindead”. I was cold, the backyard had an interesting layout, I was tired but didn’t want to miss the opportunity to photograph someone’s first show. A little over a year later they’ve released two singles, an EP and now are set for their first tour with follow IE legends Exutoire. Catch them on tour if you can.
Any Last Words
So dope, must listen, thumbs up. Fav track: “I dont like stairs…”
Symptoms of Suicide
Groovy, acoustic, hand drawn single art… what more could one ask for?
Lost Not Found
Epic metalcore/Post-Hardcore with some synths. Fav track: “Raspberry Iced Tea”.
Concision Debut Album
Genuinely my favorite new album of 2026 so far. Fav track: “It’s Not Chivalry…”
Takers Leavers
This band is truly a paradox. Honestly, I thought they were all but over then they teased and released this seemingly out of nowhere. Looking forward to what more is to come.
Sycamour
Two new singles in 2026 after years of silence… it’s wonderful.
Matchbook Romance
A little update to Voices, two new tracks under disk two: Visions. I can’t help but to be hopeful that there’s more to come.