Marking a decade since the release of their first Top 40 single, “Best Day of My Life”, American Authors brought that same unadulterated joy to their latest album, Best Night of My Life.

The band is calling it “the most American Authors album we’ve ever done”, saying that it was a conscious decision to bring more feel-good songs to a world that has seen a great deal of devastation over the last few years.

While they continue to pen undeniable anthems, there is a growth and maturity that shows throughout the 10-track LP.

“We wrote and produced this album completely ourselves, just the three of us, because at the end of the day, no one knows Authors more than we do,” vocalist and guitarist Zac Barnett said. “We’ve written with so many talented people in the past that this time we wanted to keep it all in-house; to bring as much truth to our music and brand as possible.”

The band spent just two weeks writing, recording and producing the album in Barnett’s living room in Las Vegas. By taking the reins, they were able to make this album completely, authentically an American Authors album.

“We wrote and recorded this album in two weeks so it was a looooot of challenging long nights,” Barnett said. “In that time, we did about 20 songs then cut [them] down to our favorite 10. We would start writing around 10 a.m. and usually work until midnight. While it was definitely a lot of work, we’re all so passionate about our writing and genuinely love working together, so we were always having fun.”

The title track comes as a full-circle moment to the single that kickstarted their popularity. It is less of a follow-up and more of a nod to their love of spirited, captivating melodies.

Throughout the album listeners will hear impressive harmonies, handclaps and whistling infused with acoustic guitars, banjos and a harmonica that was actually Postmate’d to the studio. These songs touch on human connection, love, loss and knowing the best is yet to come.

“We hope people can listen to this album and feel great about themselves and the future,” Barnett said. “We always keep a strong message of hope in our songs and we want to portray truth and positivity. Put this album on and get ready to seize the day and live your best life.”

Canadian R&B singer Myles Lloyd uses his vocal presence to create vulnerable, honest music that gives the listener a personal look into his human condition. That vocal presence is heavily felt in his sophomore album, Forever, Yours.

The eight-track release follows his 2019 album, Goodbye, which took a different approach of alienating the past and finally getting the strength to move forward.

“But how realistic is it to leave everything in the past and never think about it again?” Lloyd said. “To never wonder how life would be with a do-over? So many scenarios and thoughts can play in your head and it’s normal.”

This time around, Lloyd focuses on the real life events of physically leaving someone yet remaining emotionally attached to them. Each track bubbles in emotion that stems from love, sexual desire and the risqué parts of relationships.

“Forever, Yours is about how you can say goodbye but the memories, emotions, experiences and feelings will always be with me,” he said. “Some might think this goes into the toxic relationship realm but I just think it's real life. Some people go and stay away and some people you just can’t fully let go so you keep going back and forth to recapture that feeling."

The album opens with “Better With You”, a track just under a minute and a half. That minute and a half is all it takes for Lloyd to admit that he was wrong and is a better person when he is with them. That theme is also prevalent in “Running On You”, while tracks “Distraction” and “Monster” admit that he wasn’t always bringing out the other person’s best qualities.

The album title is a nod to Michael Jackson’s 1975 album, Forever, Michael, which was a staple in Lloyd’s childhood. The album is still one of his inspirations when it comes to making music, with its mix of soul sounds and funk elements.

Photo courtesy of Shervin Lainez

For Eric Vattima, he has come to an understanding that second guessing his work as a songwriter is always going to be part of the process.

“When you’re an underground artist that not too many people know about, you have freedom to experiment,” he said. “Even if you lose some followers along the way, you never know who’s going to become a fan as a result of the changes that you make to your sound as an artist.”

During the creation process of this latest EP, fears., he remembers a specific moment where the song “Reality” was nothing more than a filler. The lyrics address the anxiety that comes with facing the reality of a situation, which in turn can give off more anxiety when it comes time to release it to the world. Despite its initial doubts, “Reality” ended up being the lead single.

Each song on the EP became mini therapy sessions for Vattima as well as a major learning experience. For starters, it helped him learn to take his mental health seriously and finally step back into the world of therapy.

“Writing this was truly therapy for me, so I found a lot of peace on these topics in writing my feelings out and building these tracks from the ground up,” he said. “This was the first project that I’d worked on where there was a cohesive idea that tied the whole thing together, and that’s given me a lot of motivation moving forward in tackling future projects that I want to create.”

By learning to take his mental health seriously, he was able to hone in on his skills as a songwriter and producer. He found a sound that he believes best represents him as an artist and has a stepping stone to his next body of work.

He also has many friends that contributed to fears., including Dallas Jack, Matt Wagner, Kory Shore, Nick Magasano, Christopher Rivera (Arquel), and his father, Michael Angelo Vattima. Thanks to them, the EP is everything he could have hoped for.

“The most rewarding moment of all was sitting back and hearing the entire project from start to finish as soon as I got the mastered files back in my possession,” Vattima said. “To hear it all finally together was incredible. In the end, I’m glad that I didn’t let anything keep me from releasing these songs, because the response that the project has gotten so far has been more than I could’ve ever hoped for.”

What he hoped for in releasing the EP was that someone would find a point of relation to it, and he did just that. Each song creates an open dialogue between friends, family, co-workers or strangers to tap into their emotions and find out that everyone has fears and they are valid.

“If you can get past your fears, then nothing can stop you from achieving anything that you want out of life,” Vattima said. “Don’t let a fear define you, just take your time and work through them as you’re ready to. Also, if you feel like it would work for you, therapy is what truly helped me confront and get past a lot of my own fears and self doubts. Life is full of uncertainty, so remember to be kind to yourself and to others, because you never know when someone is going through a rough time.”

The four-track EP, Bittersweet, was their pandemic project that left them with more songs than ever. From spending months at their parents’ home in the countryside to various bedrooms and studios, these songs represent the latest exploration of their lives.

“We went with a group of songs that we really all resonated with, that musically flowed well into each other, but importantly, conceptually had a thread linking them all together,” lead guitarist and vocalist Josh said.

The first track, “The Horror”, is what Josh called a “lifetime of recollection from three introverted thinkers” when we spoke to them earlier this year. The lyrics accurately describe the anxiety that comes with not being able to forgive yourself, even if everyone else already has.

The second track, “Thunder In the Room”, was also released as the second single and touched on societal structures. The accompanying music video plays off of those structures as they perform underneath a bridge and amongst nature.

“Cedar” and “Reculver” are nostalgic both lyrically and sonically. While “Cedar” speaks of places that hold significant memories, “Reculver” dives into how those memories become distorted over time.

“That thread that linked the songs was this exploration of the duality of what we perceive as reality - how our experiences and emotions colour how we see ourselves and the world around us,” Josh said. “We touched on nostalgia, forgiveness, anger and self-doubt - often not reaching conclusions but more documenting the journey of unpacking them.”

Bittersweet (Re-edits) is an alternative look at the four tracks, where instead of making a song the ‘traditional’ way, they allowed themselves to “be guided by a chain reaction of ideas inspired by riffs, patterns and musical moments in our original recordings.” Josh, Seth and Adam each reworked a song as well as their drummer, Josh Gale (also known as Single Ruin).

This time around, due to the nature of the world, Bittersweet was much more of an isolated project. Coming together to track the songs meant that most of the parts were already written and demoed, and was both an adventure and a challenge.

“We were all really pleased with the outcome, although it did feel like it took more work to get over the finish line as we weren’t able to fluidly create and bounce ideas off each other,” Josh said. “Going forward, we’re excited to spend more time jamming out ideas to see if they can develop into fully-fledged songs.”

Although the last decade has lacked an album full of brand new Evanescence songs, the band has been hard at work concentrating on songs old and new.

They had spent the early months of 2020 working on four new tracks, and ultimately feeling like they were headed toward a sound that was both reminiscent of their hard rock roots and inspired by their love of the 90s grunge era. Needless to say, they were eager to see where the rest of the album would lead.

“The path starts making itself and you start following that road,” lead vocalist Amy Lee said at a media event to promote what is now their fifth full-length studio album, The Bitter Truth.

Unfortunately, there was no warning that a global pandemic would block their path.

The path back to one another took time, and when they found a safe way to get together and finish the album, that is exactly what they did. Except this time, they had a different perspective on the future.

The Bitter Truth goes deeper, darker and into more difficult themes than any of their lyrics have gone before. It’s a battle cry that speaks to a demographic far beyond the reach of their previous work, and shows a different, more vulnerable side of Lee.

“So much has happened,” she said. “There’s been so much to say, and we were already on that path when the world turned absolutely upside down, so it was hard to go to some of those places but it was healing for me. I don’t know what I would have done - I think I would have gone insane last year if we didn’t have this album to make.”

“Don’t you speak for me”, a lyric from “Use My Voice”, became a phrase that Lee found herself repeating while watching the news. Although the political climate wasn’t the original inspiration for the song, with its lyrics being half written nearly a decade ago, it soon turned into an anthem for injustice and how everyone’s voice matters.

Another song with powerful lyrics, “Far From Heaven”, was incredibly difficult to write. Lee said that the song is about questioning her faith, and the emotions that overcame that questioning after the passing of her brother in 2018.

“It was hard to admit the questioning and the real struggle that I have been facing,” she said. “But it’s so worth it when you break through.”

Lee said that she has learned again and again that it is not what happens to a person, but what they do with it. It’s about creating something good from something bad and giving it a purpose. That is what she wanted the album to touch on, and learning that lesson again made her realize that there would never be a time more perfect than now to release new music.

She also wanted to make sure that the album spoke to her bandmates as much as it did to her. Every album has had a slightly different lineup, but that didn’t deter her from making sure everyone’s personal taste and personality came out in each song. Lastly, she wanted to make sure the album spoke to its listeners.

“I have found over the course of my career and my journey with this band that our music is a very special place not just for us, but for other people, people that I don’t personally know,” she said. “Those stories and those experiences and those parts of people’s lives that our music has been there for them in, that’s all just become part of this bigger story that I feel like I’m a part of. It just makes it better. It just makes it bigger. It just makes it more precious and I’m just very grateful to have our fans after all this time.”

When Lee was asked what the bitter truth was, she said it was the driving force behind the album. Life is short. Time is precious. In order for things to get better, the truth must be accepted. Facing the bitter truth is what leads to a better place.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Harris

Fans of Frank Carter have watched him transform from chaotic frontman of hardcore punk band Gallows to outspoken advocate and leader of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes. The band’s latest release, End of Suffering, brings forth another transformation as they take on a new era.

End of Suffering, named after the Buddhist term for enlightenment, was recorded with Cam Blackwood (George Ezra/Jack Savoretti) and mixed by Alan Moulder (Nine Inch Nails/Queens Of The Stone Age). It lets listeners dive deeper into the creative mind of Carter by getting a better understanding of where he’s currently at in his life.

"This is the most honest record I've ever written,” he said. “Blossom was about loss, Modern Ruin was about crumbling foundations - whether that's relationships or society. End Of Suffering is a lot more personal. It's about how fucking hard you can make things for yourself."

The album opens with “Why a Butterfly Can't Love a Spider” and lyrically stands out amongst the tracklist due to the intensity heard in Carter’s voice as he sings, “When I’m high I’m in heaven/When I’m low I’m in hell”. Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello is featured on the second track, “Tyrant Lizard King”, and perfectly blends Morello’s talent with the hook of a first-album era Rattlesnakes song.

Songs like “Crowbar” and “Kitty Sucker” emphasize the growth that Carter has made in his songwriting while songs like “Anxiety” prove how honest the lyrics have become. Carter has been open about his own struggles with anxiety, and has become an advocate to remove the stigma surrounding mental illness in general. His online initiative that works alongside UK charity CALM, #abetterplaceforyouandme, is a safe forum for people to discuss ways of overcoming and living with anxiety.

Another topic he’s spoken openly about is the lack of equality seen at live shows. When performing at Cobra Lounge in Chicago in 2017, Carter kept a theme throughout the show of speaking about misogyny ruining concerts for women. That night, he gave the women in that crowd a platform to feel safe in that room and dedicated a song just to crowd surfing females. He said his reasoning behind pushing for a safe, equal environment was because of his daughter, who can be heard on the title track. 

Through Frank Carter’s transformation, his efforts to evolve as a man and a musician have given his music a more honest approach with each release. End of Suffering is a new era of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes; an era that’s sure to bring their best music yet.

During the summer of 2015, former Christian metalcore band Underoath played their first show since disbanding in 2013 and announced the Rebirth Tour - shows dedicated to playing They’re Only Chasing Safety and Define the Great Line in full. The following spring brought them to 31 major cities and thousands of fans who genuinely missed one of the most defining bands of the 2000s.

“We got about two weeks into the Rebirth tour and thought, ‘Waaaaait a second. This is too important. It’s too important to our fans and it’s too important to us and the feelings we have playing together are too important to ignore.’ And then we slowly asked the question: What’s next?” drummer/vocalist Aaron Gillespie said in a press release.

What was next was bringing the Rebirth Tour all around the world, touring with Bring Me the Horizon, playing festivals and ultimately making their first album in eight years.

Erase Me is not only the first album they’ve released in nearly a decade but it’s also the first album they’ve released since stating that they no longer consider themselves a Christian band. It is evident in their lyrical content with songs such as “On My Teeth”. While it caught fans off guard, the band took to Twitter to address their reasoning behind it.

“Words are words,” Gillespie said. “Expletives are used to make emphasis in my opinion. If curse words offend you I’m sorry, you should stay in your safe place and not venture out into the world. People hurt, people mess up, people sometimes just need to say something like “fuck” to explain that.”

“...Underoath is the healthiest and happiest we have ever been in our entire career, we may have different viewpoints or beliefs that you may or may NOT have but that certainly does NOT mean we are lost or in a worse spot than before,” vocalist Spencer Chamberlain said. “We’ve all grown...a lot.”

Erase Me isn’t an attempt at reviving past albums or staying in the same place, it’s the next logical step of their evolution. While it features more singing than previous albums, the creative and personal growth of each member makes this album unapologetically real. Tracks touch on anxiety, betrayal and mental health in a narrative that removes them from being a band stuck in their beginning era. They haven’t strayed away from being creative in their own right and being limitless in their content, but they’ve created a new era of what’s to come next for Underoath.

 

“Music was always around when I was a kid. At my grandparent's house, it was Waylon, Willie, Johnny Cash and lots of 90’s country like Hal Ketchum and John Anderson. My dad was into the Rolling Stones, The Romantics and had a bunch of tapes lying around in boxes. In the boxes, I discovered the Stooges for the first time. On a family trip to his high school friends Jack’s place, Jack played me The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Jam and The Clash for the first time. My mom was into U2, The Tragically Hip, The Commitments, Melissa Etheridge and The Pixies. I’ve never really compiled that list before and now that I'm looking at it, it’s pretty plain to see where my influences come from.”

Photo courtesy of Jesse DeFlorio

After playing in various bands of various genres, going solo is a concept both rewarding and terrifying. Is it worth it? Will anyone pay attention? Will this completely backfire? Is the music good enough?