WATCH: Bullet For My Valentine explain why new album ‘Gravity’ is their "best yet"
"It's a smack in the face live," the band insist
Last updated 10th Jun 2018
Bullet For My Valentine have waxed lyrical about their upcoming new studio album ‘Gravity’.
Singer/guitarist Matt Tuck and drummer Jason Bowld caught up with Kerrang! Radio’s Johnny Doom backstage at Download Festival ahead of their Main Stage appearance and promised great things about ‘Gravity’, which sees the light of day on Friday 29th June.
Asked by Johnny how it differs to 2015’s ‘Venom’, Matt said: “There’s quite a lot different about it. It’s a far more edgy contemporary metal record. We’ve kind of taken our foot off the gas in as far as displaying our chops, y’know like shredding and all the technical aspects of what we’ve done in the past, we’ve done it a million times.
“We just kind of felt that to do that again was a bit boring and predictable and wasn’t really creative or exciting any more. We’ve done it so many times that we just want to do something that was different and made us really excited about what we need to do, which is tour for the next two years so that’s what we did.”
He continued: “We just showcase the band’s skills set when we need to and when we feel we want to. The focus on ‘Gravity’ is the songwriting, like I said we don’t really need to prove ourselves any more I don’t think.
The gates open
“I think what’s important is developing the songs and that’s what we’ve done. We’ve really focussed in on the vocals, the lyrical content and a really massive sonic foundation in the music to have the spotlight on the vocals at all times really.”
Jason added: “It’s more of a punch in the face in some ways y’know cos it’s scaled back and stripped down you can deliver what you want with more focus, which is gonna work live. We’ve already toured four new songs this year and it’s definitely more of a smack in the face live because it’s more simple and to the point.”
Reflecting upon experimenting with soundscapes and strings on the record, Matt said: “It’s an area of music that we’ve never really used. There’s only so much we can do with two guitars, bass and drums and vocals.
“We just felt the time was right to incorporate that side of music production and music technology; it just enhances the mood. It’s like movie soundtrack stuff, we just kind of approached it like ‘what can we do to enhance the song?’”
Continuing to heap praise on the record, Matt added: “It’s hands down the best Bullet album we’ve done. The songs speak for themselves and the production sounds incredible; it’s heavy, it’s dark, it’s contemporary, it’s edgy, it’s a really cool heavy metal record.
“It feels like something special is on the horizon, it really feels like the band is embarking on something really special again, which is great.”
You can watch the full interview with Matt and Jason here: