"The Heresy", a new song from Cleveland masked metallers MUSHROOMHEAD, can be streamed below. The track is taken from the band's eighth album, "A Wonderful Life", which will be released on June 19 via Napalm Records.
For the better part of the past five years, top-charting masked metal machine MUSHROOMHEAD have been crafting the epic follow up to their monumental 2014 full-length album, "The Righteous & The Butterfly" — waiting ever so patiently to drop their next collection of anthems.
Available in several enticing formats, "A Wonderful Life" clocks in at a whopping 70-plus minutes with its four bonus tracks — leaving a total of 17 stellar compositions in its wake for fans to devour. "A Wonderful Life" is accented by the sharp production of band mastermind/drummer Steve "Skinny" Felton, as well as the standout mixing prowess of Matt Wallace (FAITH NO MORE, 3 DOORS DOWN), also recognized for his work on the band's classic offering "XIII".
At its start, an ominous choir invites the listener into "A Wonderful Life" — introductory track "A Requiem For Tomorrow" smoothly shifts into an industrial-metal inspired, grooving punch to the gut juxtaposed with a melodic, synth-laden chorus. This sets the stage for stocky, chant-worthy anthems such as "Seen It All" and hair-raising, politically inclined tracks like "The Heresy" and "Carry On", both featuring the sinister multi-voice attack of new full-time vocalist Ms. Jackie and returning longtime vocalist J Mann, with an extra strike from aforementioned new vocalist Mr. Rauckhorst on the latter. Tracks like "What A Shame", "I Am The One" and "Madness Within" will prove a treat for new and diehard MUSHROOMHEAD fans alike — providing the macabre inspiration followers have come to crave with a weighty dose of galloping drums and bone-rattling guitars, to boot.
"A Wonderful Life" track listing:
01. A Requiem For Tomorrow
02. Madness Within
03. Seen It All
04. The Heresy
05. What A Shame
06. Pulse
07. Carry On
08. The Time Has Come
09. 11th Hour
10. I Am The One
11. The Flood
12. Where The End Begins
13. Confutatis
14. To The Front (bonus track)
15. Sound Of Destruction (bonus track)
16. Another Ghost (bonus track)
17. Lacrimosa (bonus track)
The cover art was created by Gus Fink and can be seen below.
MUSHROOMHEAD's upcoming album will be the band's first since the March 2018 departures of longtime vocalist Jeff "Jeffrey Nothing" Hatrix and guitarist Tommy Church.
Felton told the Waterloo, Iowa radio station Rock 108 about the effect of MUSHROOMHEAD's latest lineup changes on the band's songwriting: "It's always cool to do new things with new people and not necessarily know what you're going to get. This will be MUSHROOMHEAD's eighth album, so I definitely don't want it to sound like everyone expects. I'm definitely looking forward to doing more experimenting. The unknown is really cool.
"As we write, we're creating stuff that we've never heard or felt before," he explained. "It's really, really awesome. In the long run, everything always ends up really dark. Everything's always creepy. Everything's always got some sort of sound design element to it that's not your traditional guitar lick or keyboard sound — there's something odd about it. The creepiness is never going to go away."
MUSHROOMHEAD is:
Mr. Rauckhorst - Vocals
J Mann - Vocals
Ms. Jackie - Vocals
Dr. F - Keyboards & Bass guitar
Tankx - Guitar
Stitch - Keyboards & Samples
Diablo - Drums/Percussion
Skinny - Drums/Percussion
Photo credit: Abe Robinson at Blind 7 Photography
