August Burns Red ‘Leveler’ Cover Goes Against Metal Cliches
August Burns Red have revealed the cover art and track listing for their forthcoming album 'Leveler,' due out June 21st. Guitarist JB Brubaker admitted that the band took a risk with its cover, which is meant to go against the grain of metal clichés like bloodied skulls, severed limbs, and other horror-influenced images.
"We had the artwork illustrated by the artist Jordan Crane," Brubaker told Noisecreep. "Jordan has a very comic book vibe to his illustrations, and we thought that would give this cover a different feel from our previous album covers. The cover depicts a house that has been 'leveled' by a hurricane or some sort of natural disaster. There are chickens in the foreground of the cover. They represent the idea of life continuing on after tragedy. The cover as a whole doesn't look very metal, but dark metal imagery has never been something that gets us overly excited. We'll take chickens over skulls any day."
'Leveler' will be made available in two configurations: regular and deluxe. "For the bonus tracks on the deluxe edition, we were able to collaborate with some close friends and amazing musicians," Brubaker explains. "Our friends in the post-rock band Bells did an amazing job reworking our song 'Pangaea' and making it into something completely different. It sounds absolutely huge and we love it.
"Our close friend, Zach Veilleux, a virtuoso piano player, shredded a piano rendition of our song 'Boys of Fall.' Dustin and I recorded an acoustic version of our song 'Internal Cannon' with some mariachi flare and a ridiculous guitar solo courtesy of Jason Suecof. Finally, we threw in one of the original MIDI [computer] tracks from the 'Leveler' writing process to give everyone an idea of how our songs sound before they get recorded. It's pure 1988 Nintendo bliss," Brubaker said.
Track listing for 'Leveler':
1. Empire
2. Internal Cannon
3. Divisions
4. Cutting the Ties
5. Pangaea
6. Carpe Diem
7. 740 Nights
8. Salt & Light
9. Poor Millionaire
10. 1/16/2011
11. Boys of Fall
12. Leveler
Bonus tracks for Deluxe edition of 'Leveler':
13. Internal Cannon (acoustic)
14. Pangaea (performed by Bells)
15. Boys of Fall (performed by Zachary Veilleux)
16. Empire (MIDI)
Watch the video for 'White Washed'
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