Extreme-progressive metal band TILL THE DIRT has released their debut album, Outside The Spiral, today with Nuclear Blast Records.
Spearheaded by influential metal legend Kelly Shaefer (ATHEIST), the newly formed group has defied the confines of death metal with a massively heavy sound influenced by the juxtaposing styles of grunge, black metal, jazz, rock, dark wave and even classic pop. Shaefer’s unique take on the music swayed legendary death metal producer Scott Burns (DEATH, CANNIBAL CORPSE, DEICIDE) out of retirement to work on the record with mixing and mastering by Ryan Vincent at Apollo Alternative. The result is an eclectic, progressive outlier record that takes listeners on an insane journey outside the norms of traditional metal.
Today, the band has also debuted a lyric video for the song ‘Privilege,’ which features metal luminary Jeff Loomis (ARCH ENEMY, ex-NEVERMORE). Watch the lyric video below.
Commenting on ‘Privilege,’ Shaefer says:
“I couldn't be more excited to unleash the 3rd single from ‘Outside the Spiral.’ This track is probably the closest to the template of what I'm most proud of about this album. And lyrically, it is a bit of a tribute to the very ‘Privilege’ of just breathing each new day as it comes. I'm excited for the world to hear the complete album! It's at minimum a new frontier.”
Purchase/Stream Outside The Spiral: https://tillthedirt.bfan.link/outside-the-spiral-A
About TILL THE DIRT:
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 colors 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 young musicians full of raw energy and passion to help TILL THE DIRT. Scott Burns (ATHEIST, DEATH, OBITUARY, CANNIBAL CORPSE, CYNIC, MALEVOLENT CREATION, SUFFOCATION) was one of his first listeners to offer his services. lly 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!
Line up:
Kelly Shaefer | Vocals
Jerry Witunsky| Guitars
Ian Waye | Guitars
Yoav Ruiz Feingold| Bass
Dylan Marks| Drums
PRODUCED BY: Scott Burns
MIXED AND MASTERED BY: Ryan Vincent at Apollo Audio Alt
COVER ART: Santiago Jaramillo - Triple Seis Design
