There are few bands in the metalcore scene that are as talked about in recent years, as August Burns Red. The American band are not only known for their authentic lyrics most notably about mental health topics, but also for their distinct brand of this heavy metal subgenre as where most bands have clean vocalists within this subgenre, for most of the time, August Burns Red use mostly harsh vocals both for choruses and verses. This year, marks the release of their brand new album Season Of Surrender, and ahead of this release which as of today is now out, Soundsphere journalist Itay Gilad had the chance to talk to frontman Jake Luhrs about the new record.
There are quite a few things, which, upon listening to the album stand out. What is most noticeable, is the fact that there are three guest appearances scattered throughout. Speaking on this, Luhrs says “when you think about like, who you want to have featured on the album, for us it’s really about the connection to the song. We want somebody who we think is going to accompany the song really well, and then we were like, let’s get some friends on this record” he explains before diving into each of the individuals that all appear throughout Season Of Surrender. “So we went with Mike Hranica, asked him if he’d be willing to be a guest, and I think he’s one of the best vocalists in the game. It’s kind of surprising to me now thinking back now, we both entered the scene in the same time.”
For those who do not know, Hranica is the frontman for the equally as legendary metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada who also entered the scene in 2004, the same time as August Burns Red. Commenting on the song the two powerhouses worked on together, Luhrs says that that it suits both him as well as Hranika due to the aggressive nature of the song. “The song he’s on about, ‘Legions,’ is about narcissism. And so it’s kind of a dark, eerie, aggressive kind of nasty song not just the instrumentation, so we thought he’d be a great fit for that.”
The second feature that he tells me more about is perhaps one of the more accessible tracks on the new album, as it features one of the most popular, and seemingly happy metalcore singers in heavy music currently. “We have Polaris, Jamie, the singer of Polaris, and he’s a high energy dude. Very positive, very like, high energy, and that is kind of what that song is. Instrumentally it’s very positive and very jumpy, and he just killed that. And the song is about community and music, how music works in us, or can change our attitude, or makes us think of a specific past memory.” He continues “there’s a lot of power in music, so we really wanted Jamie to be a part of that because he has that energy.”
Commenting on the last feature that is on this album, the August Burns Red singer says “Lastly, for a song called ‘Cerebral Malfunction’ we have Make Them Suffer. Sean, their vocalist and Alex Reade. She has a phenomenal voice, and that song is about self sabotage.”
Diving into the lyrical content of this song, Luhrs tells me that even though it is sad, the message that he is trying to convey is ultimately very positive. “Somebody who struggles with knowing their worth, and someone who ruins good things in their life. In the song there’s this angelic voice that reassures them that hey like don’t stop, there’s more for you here. This habit of seeing life like this is not really where you’re supposed to be and how you’re supposed to live. And so when I was thinking about this angelic voice, Alex has this amazing, beautiful voice, and I was like this would be so amazing if she’d want to take part in this song, and she signed up.” This leads into him beaming with joy upon realising how huge this collaboration is as a fan of Make Them Suffer. “We love each other’s bands, so it was really cool for her and Sean to say yes.”
At this point though, Luhrs is not done, as he continues about the professionalism of Make Them Suffer by saying “I’m not a clean vocalist, that’s not really my thing, and watching her in the studio blew my mind. It’s different than the rest of the tracks on the album, and I think it has it’s own identity especially with her on it.” This is all very clear when you listen to this track as it evidently does easily stand out amongst the others.
Part of the reason why each song on this album works as well as they do here, is because each track stands on its own. This is something that for Luhrs, and the rest of the band, has to be explored by having moments that stand out in each individual song. “I think that there’s, when I think of what makes a song have it’s identity, I think that there are key moments in those songs that make them stand out. There could be a line that is screamed, one-liners, or it could be you know, a really heavy breakdown or something really technical, it could be a really catchy chorus that you can’t get out of your head. There’s many ways to make a song have it’s own identity.”
Part of what also makes each individual track stand out, is the fact that Luhrs focuses on themes and lyrics that will resonate with the August Burns Red fans. “It’s kind of like what you want to create or what you want to write about and what you think will resonate to the listener. You always have those thoughts in the back of your mind as you’re listening to a song to really see what’s the characteristics of a song.”
Continuing on the themes of each track having a identity of its own, in terms of the actual musicality, Luhrs says “Dustin is just a phenomenal song writer, J.B is as well, but Dustin is very much in a place where he’s challenging himself to grow as a musician and a song writer. For example the solo in ‘Behemoth,’ he’s never written anything like that for ABR before.” Ultimately though, he reflects on his part of the songwriting process by saying that with Season Of Surrender, this was the first time songwriting was a full band process. “I’m not a song writer, I’m a lyricist, so I’m not necessarily building the songs from scratch with them. What we did on this last record, was we really got involved as a band to dig deeper into the song structure, and certain sections of songs to make them better.” This ultimately leads him to saying “when you’re able to as a band look at the art together collectively, you tend to get a better product.” This is why he is so fond of this particular release. “I’m so attached to this album because my hands have been all over it.” He does not stop there though, as he tells me “there’s really a lot that goes into the writing process for us as a band, and I think that we went to that next level with this record, I’m really proud of this record, and I love it, I think it’s a great representation of August Burns Red, our career, and where we are as musicians.”
photo credit: Paxton Powell
Slightly changing topics, we then dive into more of the actual songwriting process for August Burns Red. According to the metalcore frontman, this all depends on if a track he is given is heavy or not, “If J.B writes a song and it’s really heavy, I know like this is going to be a brutal song, but then I’ll sit with it, and it might bring a memory, it might bring a past experience to my mind, it might make me feel a certain way.” The ultimate question he asks himself upon listening to a song, is “what is the song pulling out of me?” Seemingly just like that though, he explains how he answers this question. “If there’s like a thought or a feeling, I will then use that to write about that, because I’m hearing this, I’m feeling this, I’m sensing this from the song.”
After this, he gives me an example of a track on Season Of Surrender, and the process behind it.“For ‘Sonic Salvation’, I told J.B I would love something that would really get me the space to write a big vocal section. So he took that into consideration.” He continues, “It’s still aggressive and heavy, still technical, but has open sections where I can write a chorus or really dance around the verses and play with it a little more,” before giving another answer to his own question. “Sometimes when you listen to a song that Dustin or J.B write, it pulls you into that direction.”
Something else that make August Burns Red stand out, is how active they are advocating for mental health. They are one of the most prolific bands in current day metal who focus on different important mental health subjects. Speaking on what he personally wants to achieve with this, Luhrs begins by telling me “We probably have a lot of differences with our believes and what we like or don’t like, but I believe you have a life to live and I’m excited for that. I want you to be the best possible version of yourself you can be. If there’s things in your life that might beholding you back from being the best version of yourself, I want you to break those. I want you to heal. I want you to live the most unique life you could possibly live. You are great right where you stand. Who you are, what makes you unique, the dreams that you have, the ideas that you have. That is my goal with music and the mental health stuff that I do. It’s because I believe that people have a unique purpose, and they have unique gifts.” Now, speaking on what mental health means for the band, he tells me “If every band sounded like August Burns Red, it would be boring. We would absolutely hate that. If every band sounded the same, I would not listen to this music. So what makes the music special? The person that’s writing it, they’re writing it their way. They’re writing the music that they love. That’s unique, that’s something special. It makes things different than the way they were, and that’s what I’m trying to do with music. I want to use it as a tool to help people, I want to use it as a tool for positivity, I want to use it for a tool to help people break bad habits or make amends with their family members, or forgive themselves or other people so that they can grow to be the person they were supposed to be where they enjoy their lives and they’re using that uniqueness to make the world a better place.”
After this, a moment of reflection is necessary, as asking if Luhrs believes that he got closer to this objective with this album, seems unavoidable. “The idea of the record, It’s titled Seasons Of Surrender and what that means is, usually the things we love the most, we’re not willing to budge on them.” He continues by giving an example of what he means by this. “This could be a bad habit, and it can be hurtful, it can detour us from who we’re supposed to be.” Continuing on, he says “it can be hurtful, it can detour us from who we’re supposed to be. This is what I’m asking people to give up. I want them to surrender it, to let go of it, maybe it’s my mother mistreated me or my sister for years and now I’m never going to talk to her again. Maybe it’s an addiction, or after the car accident, I used alcohol to subdue my feelings and to hide. So, it’s comfortable right? You keep it near because it’s serving you in some way, but it may be unhealthy. So surrendering that, and going on a season where you’re changing, and you’re going through a season of surrender, and you’re changing your habits you’re changing the way you see yourself. You’re doing the actions that are helping you form a new way of life.”
Talking on how this is reflected onto this record, he says “with each song, there’s a topic. There’s self-sabotage, there’s narcissism, the song ‘Legions’, there’s Depression, ‘Forged By Failure’, There’s addiction, the song ‘S.O.S’, there’s all these different topics, and my hope and desire is that for people to resonate with one of them, where it kind of hits you. And then they can self-reflect as to what it is in their lives, that they hold close to their hearts that they can surrender for a season, so that they can be a better version of themselves.” He finishes by saying “that is really the overarching thought process.”
At this point, moving onto a more light-hearted topic, we discuss more of the thought process behind writing music for the band. Speaking on whether the music or lyrics come first in the process, Luhrs tells me “the lyrics and the songwriting go hand in hand. I’m writing lyrics, and Brent writes lyrics, our rhythm guitarist and then Dustin and J.B writes all the instrumentation.”
With this being said, I get told that writing an album is not a linear line in terms of how long the overall process takes. “We start writing whenever for a record. Dustin wrote Behemoth like a while ago, before we got into a studio and gearing up to write a record. You kind of like write lyrics within a year or two when it comes to you.”
At this point, Luhrs properly dives into answering this question. “What we do is, I will listen to the music, Brent will listen to the music that Dustin and J.B are writing, and we will look at our lyrics, and we will then sit down and think on what lyric or topic do we really feel resonates with this particular song, and then we’ll take that lyric, put it to that song, and then we’ll listen to the song, read the lyrics a few times, see if it resonates with everything, dynamics and song structure to really see if they are a good match. If they are, we’ll use them. If not, Brent will write lyrics pertaining to that song, or I will write a lyric to that song.”
Another huge part of the album cycle is picking the singles to release ahead of the full release. Speaking on this, Luhrs says “sometimes you know, sometimes you finish a song and you’re like that’s a single,” before naming one of the songs. “’Sonic Salvation’ was a song that we were like yep, that’s going to be a single.”
This is not always easy for him and his bandmates though, as the interview ends by him saying “other times, you go what do we feel as a band is a good representation of an album? The other question could be, well we’re using ‘Sonic Salvation’ as a single, what’s another single that might be the opposite in terms of energy and sound. Bands like to do that as it shows that there’s diversity on the album.”
Seasons Of Surrender, the brand new album by August Burns Red is out now for you to stream on your favourite streaming platforms through Fearless Records, and the band are set to return to the UK early next year when they support fellow metalcore band Imminence.