Shortly after terrorists struck during a performance of the band Eagles of Death Metal at Le Bataclan, this notice on the band’s Facebook page gave a sense of the horror and confusion that enveloped Paris on Friday night. Initial reports suggested that one of the band's five-members had been killed, though the group has since reported that all its performers escaped unharmed.

The name of the California-based band appeared particularly unfortunate in the context of the attack. "Some people on social media found the name disturbing," The New York Times reported. “Others mistook it as an indication that the group plays death metal – a particularly dark subgenre of heavy metal – leading to a few insistent corrections on Twitter as well as carefully worded explanations from television news anchors.”

Despite its name, the band's music isn't death metal at all. Nor does it actually sound like the well-known rock group The Eagles. "It all started out as a joke,” band member Jesse Hughes told Rolling Stone magazine in a 2004 interview. “We were responding to a drunk guy saying Poison was death metal. I said, 'Dude! That's like the Eagles of death metal.' Josh (Homme) dared me to go write what I thought that was. It took him five years to finally convince me to come to Hollywood."

The Paris concert was part of a promotional tour for their new album Zipper Down, their first in seven years. The video below is a song from that album, which was released two months ago.

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The California-based band formed in 1998 released their first album Peace, Love, Death Metal in 2004. The band has only two permanent members – Jesse "Boots Electric" Hughes and Joshua "Baby Duck" Homme. (Homme's though doesn't perform with the band on tours and wasn't present for the Paris concert either.)

"Just when you thought it was safe to take your ladyfriends out again, Eagles of Death Metal are perched and ready to swoop in," says the bio on their Facebook page. “The band has already toured their mustaches off, but the road once more beckons and the people have spoken... there will be more Eagles for the masses soon!”

This trailer for a Vice documentary on the band's lead member Jesse “The Devil” Hughes and the new album is a peep into the silly banter he tends to engage in. You can watch a longer interview of both band members here.

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