Massachusetts metal outfit Within The Ruins have announced their new album Halfway Human will be out 3/3/17 via Entertainment One (eOne) in North America and SPV overseas.
The band recorded the new effort from their own studio with producer and guitar player Joe Cocchi at the helm. Vocal production took place at Zing studios in Westfield, MA with Jim Fogarty (Killswitch Engage, The Devil Wears Prada).
"The writing process was a bit different for this album," says Cocchi. "We took a step back and kind of reviewed some of our older material. Typically we'd rush and blast out a group of songs and then hit the studio. At the time it felt right. And It had a more organic feel. Now because of a combination of maturity and honestly just feeling sick of the same old formula, we really focused on creating something different sounding."
Halfway Human will be the band's followup to the critically acclaimed Phenomena LP released in 2014. Cocchi concludes, "We went back to a more organic style of writing and production. I personally was finally able to abandon a lot of my writing habits or 'rules,' if you will. No more 'oh, that part doesn't really sound like us, have to change that,' type of bullshit. Doing that created a fresher sound. This is the most raw and extreme sounding material we've ever written. Keep an eye out for studio blogs and more updates."
Within The Ruins maintain an emphasis on showmanship but with diversity, smartly sidestepping predictable structures and contrived breakdowns. Born and bred in the same heavy metal rich Northeast soil as New Wave Of American Heavy Metal progenitors Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, Unearth and Shadows Fall and weaned on the dark sounds of classic death metal, the technical melodicism of Scandinavia and the precision staccato crunch of Meshuggah, Within The Ruins have busted their collective ass to carve out a unique identity for themselves from those ingredients.
Within The Ruins are refreshingly authentic, feverishly committed and have proven that they will endure. Filled with power, deserving of utter respect, armed with concise compositions and technical might, Within The Ruins will not be stopped.