The multi-dimensional, progressive-rock band, Coheed and Cambria announced today that they will be touring the US this spring, performing their landmark third album, "Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness", in its entirety. The tour, entitled NEVERENDER GAIBSIV, will take the band across North America commencing on April 11, and ending May 20, and including stops at the Hollywood Palladium; Aragon Theater in Chicago; and the Blues Hill Bank Pavilion in Boston.  Support on all non-festival dates will be from The Dear Hunter.  Full list of dates are listed below. 

Good Apollo, The epic 72-minute recording considered by most as the bands most progressive album, and including two of the band’s most known singles (Welcome Home and The Suffering) and  selling over a million records worldwide. The band’s legion of fans grows every year, and the NEVERENDER concept now holds a special place within the culture of the Coheed community. NEVERENDER is the moniker given to these album performances by the band and it first started in 2008, when Coheed performed their first 4 albums over 4 nights – completing the feat in 4 different cities – New York, London, Chicago and Los Angeles.  The band’s concept albums lend themselves particularly well to the live setting. 

Simultaneously, singer Claudio Sanchez announced on CBR.com (Comic Book Resources) his plans to release a 12-issue comic book for “Good Apollo” as part of his The Amory Wars series which comes this spring from Boom! Studios.  The story, which loosely follows the lyrics of the album, centers around protagonist Claudio Kilgannon and the shocking discovery that he is The Crowing, a entity prophesied about in the holy book, who must dole out God’s judgment to destroy the universe. 

Tickets for NEVERENDER GAIBSIV go on sale to the public this Friday, January 27, but one can find tickets sooner by visiting www.coheedandcambria.com

<http://www.coheedandcambria.com> for more details.

 

 

Mastodon have never really done anything the “conventional” way. The Atlanta-based band formulated their own brand of highly-skilled hard rock over a decade ago when others were rehashing 80s metal, and went on to mastermind a string of complex concept albums while much of the music world was centered on making digestible singles. The fact that Mastodon has received an outpouring of critical kudos along with public praise from respected icons from Metallica to The Melvins, The Flaming Lips and CeeLo Green and back, they’ve been humbled by the magnitude of appreciation.  But rather than taking time to revel, they prefer to focus their attention on pushing musical boundaries even deeper by exploring their own creative process to the fullest.

The Hunter is yet another universe bending, high energy masterpiece from the band that helped shape hard rock for the 21st century with their previous albums: Remission, Leviathan, Blood Mountain and Crack the Skye. Though each consecutive album has transcended the one before it in terms of expectations, musical innovation and sales, The Hunter is the band’s most ambitious to date. Guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor, bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders and guitarist Bill Kelliher all continue to explore the outer limits of their own imaginations and as a result, deliver an album that stands apart -- even in Mastodon terms. While their last four CDs explored complex themes rooted in earth’s elements, The Hunter is more about following one’s free will than a particular storyline. “We’ve always had this umbrella or a theme that we’ve written everything under,” says Troy. “To us, it made sense as one cohesive story. This time, we freed ourselves up to try something new. It was really the next step for us, and I’m glad we took it.”

That new-found spontaneity can be felt throughout The Hunter, from the melodic yet pummeling “Blasteroid” to the frenetic, muscled single “Curl the Burl.” The album is full of surprises—from melodic, close harmonies to downright demonic growls—but predictably, the musicianship is leagues beyond what anyone would expect to find on such a hard-hitting album. The Hunter is also the band’s most emotionally charged record to date, largely due to the difficult events that surrounded its making. Tragically, Brent Hinds’ brother died of a heart attack in December of 2010 while on a hunting trip. Not long after, a friend of the bands died after a drawn out battle with cancer. “There were a lot of stressful things going on while we were making this record,” says Brann. “I wanted to ignore all the stress, which felt like it was threatening our band’s existence. We were kind of waiting to see where everything landed. But Brent didn’t want to sit and wallow in it. He wanted to do the exact opposite. So we started coming up with all these really triumphant moments for the record. It was like, fist up in the air. Like fuck that – here we go.” And they dedicated the album to Hinds brother, an avid hunter.

The material for the record was largely written on the road when the band was touring with Alice in Chains, and was recorded between Los Angeles and Atlanta over a 6 week period earlier this year. Continuing their tradition of breaking tradition, Mastodon decided to team up with Mike Elizondo, a highly respected producer more synonymous with hip hop than metal. “After meeting him and hearing his ideas and unique perspective on our band we thought ‘This could be really interesting,”” says Brent. “We’re all about doing things that other people don’t, so let’s do an album with the guy who just worked with 50 Cent and Eminem. How crazy is that? We always try and embrace the unexpected.” And again, Mastodons penchant for taking risks paid off.

The Hunter is at once space age yet earthy, aggressive but thoughtful, articulate and guttural. The guitar work here is, of course, masterful as always, as is the band’s ability to flip musical directions on a dime. All of Mastodon contributed to writing the album, and Sanders is now singing on considerably more than on previous recordings (“I never thought I’d be one of the main vocalists . . . on any record,” he laughs.) Following some fine vocal performances on the last album Dailor’s role also as a contributing vocalist has become more prominent on The Hunter as well, adding even greater freedom to the sonic textures and overall expansiveness inherent of the new album.  

As an example of the themes behind some of the new songs? They’re best described first hand by Brent and Brann:

Brann on “Curl of the Burl”: It’s about meth heads in the woods of West Virginia who look for certain types of knots in a tree. That would be the curl of the burl. They cut it out of the tree, drive it into town, sell it to furniture makers then go buy more meth. It’s like crackheads who steal copper from Lowes and sell it. We really couldn’t think of a better subject matter. It fascinated us.

Brent on “Blasteroid”: It was the name of a video game that was in the studio where we recorded. We thought it was hilarious—asteroids mixed with hemorrhoids. It had this crazy star that crapped out these asteroid looking thingees. So we mixed that ridiculous name with this sugary melody, then pushed it all up against, uh, somewhat aggressive lyrics. [Sings] ‘I wanna break some fucking glass, I wanna drink some fucking blood . . .’ Fun stuff.

Brann on “Stargasm”: It’s about having sex in space, or maybe not in space, just great sex where the orgasm brings you into space. When we sing ‘You’re on fire!,” I imagine swirling flames around these two people enjoying this sexual experience so good that they end up in outer space. Very Barbarella.

Brent on “The Sparrow”: It’s about Susie Polay our accountant’s wife, who passed away of stomach cancer when we were recording the album. Her motto was pursue happiness with diligence, and that motto became the lyrics to the song. It’s such a pretty song, and it’s so sorrowful as well. It’s in her memory and for her husband Robert, to pass on her inspiration to the listener.

One of the many ways in which Mastodon challenged itself on The Hunter was in simplifying their otherwise complex way of making music. In the past the band thrived on squeezing as much as possible in one space, and then making sense of it. With this record, they challenged themselves to pare back and let the songs breath on their own. The result is an album where sublime interludes prove just as powerful as dense layers of sound. “Our last album Crack The Skye, was such a deep, long record,” says Bill. “It was very heavy. We thought let’s make a spontaneous record based off music that comes off our fingertips in the moment. We didn’t over think it—like Hey, we gotta really dazzle the kids!  It’s like let’s not over do it.  Just let it fall naturally, and we did.”

By following their instincts, Mastodon has come up with the best record of their career. But then, should we really be all that surprised? Their slow-growing trajectory from flat-broke obscurity to the stages of Coachella, Europe’s Sonisphere and Bonnaroo which has presented Mastodon to an inordinately eclectic cross-section of music fans who have embraced the band as much as any audience who are more interested in the quality of the music rather then fall into the trappings of narrow-mined genre dwellers. This is the result of taking the road less traveled with nothing more than their instincts—and love of a good riff—to guide them. “We can never go in the studio saying we’re gonna make a heavy record because that’s what people expect,” says Brann. “Or a progressive record, because that’s what they want to hear. You can talk all day about what you’ll do artistically, but once you sit down and it starts coming out, you find out it’s not really in your control. Things move in the direction they move in -- much like life. It might not go the way you want, but that’s when great things come out that you had no idea were there. That’s when you tap the unexpected.”

The process of innovation doesn’t sit still or sleep. Instead, it relies on constant motion. In 2015, Periphery landed two albums in the Top 20 of Billboard’s Top 200 chart as Juggernaut: Alpha and Juggernaut: Omega respectively bowed at #15 and #16 during the same week. Meanwhile, the intertwined conceptual epic garnered praise from Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Outburn, and more. Only months after the release, the Washington, D.C. progressive metal disruptors—Misha Mansoor [guitars, programming], Jake Bowen [guitar, programming, backing vocals], Matt Halpern [drums], Spencer Sotelo [lead vocals], Mark Holcomb [guitars], and Adam “Nolly” Getgood [studio bass, guitars, programming]—collectively decided to start creating what would become their 2016 full-length, Periphery III: Select Difficulty [Sumerian Records].

“We ended up with a bit of downtime, so we wrote,” explains Misha. “We’re always working on ideas, and you want to bring them to life when you can. We saw a window of opportunity where we had a little bit of space in the schedule, and we thought, ‘Let’s get to work on new music.’ Juggernaut was so long and comparatively stressful. It took six months. Initially, we decided to try and make an EP. Everybody was down with that. With this fresh start, we were all hooked. This was our first stress-free experience. The time crunch actually helped it become the most cohesive too. It all turned into Periphery III.”

 “We write what we feel,” adds Jake. “It came together very naturally. Normally, we stick to the cycle of put out an album, tour for a year, and then record another album. This time, we felt an itch and just kept moving forward.”

Forward progression defines Periphery’s trajectory. Since the release of 2010’s self-titled debut, the band has covered magazines such as Guitar World, Revolver, Modern Drummer, Bass Player, and more. Boasting a relentless touring ethic, they’ve packed venues on bills with everyone from Deftones and Dream Theater to Between The Buried and Me. In addition to performing at festivals such as Rock on the Range, Chicago Open Air, Download, and more, the musicians lead their own summer camp: the “Periphery Summer Jam.”

Going into their latest offering, the boys would continue to embrace that evolutionary spirit. Expanding the sonic palette, Misha bought a Moog synthesizer and incorporated it into the framework of the album. He also drew from orchestral libraries to infuse a cinematic scope.

 “I wanted to get the hang of synthesis and learn how to use it a little better,” he remarks. “I didn’t expect it to be on the record, but now it’s on every song! The orchestration really adds something as well.”

Periphery III kickstarts on the chugging smash of the first single “The Price Is Wrong.” Driven by an artillery of neck-snapping guitars and a stunning groove, it immediately sets the record’s tone.

“It’s like handing somebody a grenade,” smiles Jake. “It’s so in-your-face and brutal for us. It was a great way to start.”

“Every one of our albums has a nice long intro, and we were like, ‘Let’s kick this off with a drum fill and a pissed-off riff,’” laughs Misha. “It’s something we haven’t done. It was fun.”

On the other end of the spectrum, the seven minute-plus closer “Lune” marks a first for Periphery. The sweeping orchestral climax actually saw its genesis during a jam in Misha’s apartment.

“It’s a special one for a number of reasons,” admits Misha. “We’re attached to it. We literally never jam, so we did the next best thing at my place. I setup all of the amps and pedals. Matt was drumming on his legs, and we started playing one by one. It was such a cool experiment. It’s a love song.”

 “Remain Indoors” unloads a striking sonic schizophrenia, while “Flatline” showcases a precision polyrhythmic pummeling evocative of the band’s most beloved sonic hallmarks.

“It’s a killer,” Jake goes on. “We actually tracked the first three riffs backstage in Pittsburgh on tour. We never get to do that. It’s broken up into two sections with this normal Periphery energy and this mysterious build-up at the end.”

Once again, Misha and “Nolly” spearheaded production and engineering. Another change occurred following recording though, when “Nolly” announced he would remain a studio member based back home in the UK, but no longer tour in order to focus on his production work and family.

“He’ll still be there and write with us,” affirms Misha. “He’s such an important part of the process. We don’t want to change that dynamic. We have him where he’s most important.”

“He’s a good friend and a brother, and he brings something to this music nobody else can,” agrees Jake.

Charging full speed ahead, Periphery continue to make seismic impact with Periphery III: Select Difficulty.

“I hope everyone thinks this is fun and enjoyable to listen to,” Misha leaves off. “We enjoyed making it, and I still love listening to it. We want to share that.”

“I’m so happy with how it came out,” concludes Jake. “This is Periphery being Periphery. This is all we know how to do.”