fter their volcanic introduction last month, extreme metal band TILL THE DIRT return with their follow-up single ‘Starring Role‘. The catastrophic track is found on the band’s Scott Burns produced, debut record, Outside The Spiral, due out August 25th via Nuclear Blast Records.
Influential death metal legend, ATHEIST vocalist and TILL THE DIRT mastermind Kelly Shaefer comments on the new song:
“‘Starring Role’ is the first track on the album. It’s a song that ranks among my favourites on the record, and also a favourite of producer Scott Burns. It’s a straight up ripper! It encompasses all of the unique hybrid qualities of this whole album. Lyrically it is a song about the oddness of dreams and the role we sometimes do not seem to play or understand as we awake from them. This is a perfect banger for cranking loud and driving at high speeds!”
Stream ‘Starring Role‘: https://tillthedirt.bfan.link/
Kelly Shaefer is doing it again. With his new band TILL THE DIRT and their debut album Outside The Spiral the legendary Floridian death metal revolutionary is set to inject a much-needed dose of fresh blood into this aging, saturated and self-referential thing that the style has morphed into over the decades.
Everything in the genre of death metal basically rests on two pillars: extreme musical force and insane technicality – or in short, variations of more of the same that satisfies die-hard followers of this scene, but offers a rather limited artistic range. Now, Kelly and his co-conspirators in and around TILL THE DIRT have put all the fun back into extreme music by deliberately straying from the very formula that the Floridian guitarist unleashed onto the world as one of its leading proponents. One of the privileges of being a living legend is the freedom to do whatever you like without the need to prove anything to anybody. And this is exactly what happens on Outside The Spiral. Never shy in denying his death metal roots, Shaefer takes the liberty to amalgamate any musical influence into his songs as long as they fit. Don’t be surprised to find grunge, black metal, jazz, rock, dark wave, a dash of classic pop, and many other stylistic colours fused into tracks that range from relaxed malice to vitriolic face-ripping.
A fly on the wall would have witnessed Kelly frantically composing night after night, only putting his guitar down to contact friends around the globe and sending them demos looking for feedback to either affirm his gut – feeling that his new material was going into interesting places or to put a stop to this fountain of creativity. Yet, one by one his friends were at least as excited about those tracks as the composer. A new metal juggernaut had started to roll and there was no stopping. Kelly recruited enlisted young musicians full of raw energy and passion to the cause of TILL THE DIRT and most importantly one of his first listeners offered his invaluable services: Scott Burns (ATHEIST, DEATH, OBITUARY, CANNIBAL CORPSE, CYNIC, MALEVOLENT CREATION, SUFFOCATION).
“When Kelly sent me some demos, I was at first reluctant to listen to them,” reveals Scott Burns. “I thought I had kind of heard it all by now and I did not want to want to disappoint an old friend. When I finally gave the tracks a chance, it felt like being hit by an electric shock: These tracks were fresh, exciting, and fun – just like in the old days. Those demos blew me away. I was immediately hooked to the point where I really wanted to be involved. I really thought that I had stopped producing death metal for good, but here we are now!”
The pieces of this puzzle started to fall into place and while the guitarist kept chucking out killer tracks at neck-breaking speed, the producer started to add structure to the process by drawing from decades of experience. “I could not believe my luck that Scott Burns is throwing the full force of his amazing talent and status behind TILL THE DIRT, ” enthuses Kelly. “He obviously did not expect to be hijacked and put back on the producer’s chair, but I am glad to say that it did not take much convincing. I am extremely happy about this privilege: The mighty Scott Burns is back to bang your heads!”
With Outside The Spiral, TILL THE DIRT take you on a surprise-filled tour de force that will redefine the extreme metal genre in at least as many ways as ATHEIST did more than 30 years ago. Don’t take our word for it, trust your ears!
Pre-Order Outside The Spiral: https://tillthedirt.bfan.link/
