HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale spoke to Andy Hall of the Des Moines, Iowa radio station Lazer 103.3 about the inspiration for the title of the band's upcoming fifth studio album album, "Back From The Dead". Due out May 6 via Atlantic, the follow-up to 2018's "Vicious" was produced by Nick Raskulinecz (FOO FIGHTERS, MASTODON, ALICE IN CHAINS) with co-production by Scott Stevens (SHINEDOWN, DAUGHTRY, NEW YEARS DAY).
"When we first wrote [the] 'Back From The Dead' [title track], we were just, like, 'Oh my God. This is exactly how we wanna come back out. This is exactly what I wanna say on a stage,'" she said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "When we were writing it, it was, like, 'If we ever get on a stage again, this is exactly what we're gonna say.' So we kind of had it as the working title for the album for a long time and we kept trying to beat it with something more clever or whatever.' You know how it goes — you get a list of, like, 60 titles, and then you're, like, 'Oh, these are crap.' And so we ended up just deciding on 'Back From The Dead'. And this entire album is like that; it is a journey of rediscovery of either yourself or what the world means to you, what humanity means to you. It's also [about] survival. There's a lot of mental health issues that I go through on this as well. But basically, it's a true reflection of that journey that we all went through. And not just we as the world but all of us personally in the band.
"I can't wait for people to hear it," Lzzy continued. "I know that a lot of people are gonna see themselves in these songs. And I just can't wait to see which of our fans, and even people that aren't our fans yet, gravitate toward some of these songs."
Earlier in the month, HALESTORM released the official music video for "Back From The Dead"'s second single, "The Steeple",
The "Back From The Dead" title track, which came out last summer, marked HALESTORM's sixth No. 1 at rock radio, and met rave reviews: Rolling Stone called it "a biting, cathartic howler about overcoming obstacles — even death," and Consequence praised Hale's "powerhouse pipes" and lead guitarist Joe Hottinger's "blistering solo." Revolver declared it a "raucous, hard-rock rager about staying strong in the face of crushing adversity."
The official "Back From The Dead" music video, directed by Dustin Haney (Noah Cyrus, Luke Combs) and produced by Revolution Pictures, featured Lzzy and the rest of the band in a morgue and cemetery somewhere between life and death.
Lzzy and her brother Arejay (drums) formed the band in 1998 while in middle school. Guitarist Joe Hottinger joined the group in 2003, followed by bassist Josh Smith in 2004.
In December 2018, HALESTORM was nominated for a "Best Rock Performance" Grammy Award for its song "Uncomfortable". Six years earlier, the band won its first Grammy in the category of "Best Hard Rock/ Metal Performance" for "Love Bites (So Do I)".
