SPINESHANK

The reactivated original lineup of SPINESHANK — featuring Jonny Santos (vocals), Tommy Decker (drums), Mike Sarkisyan (guitar) and Rob Garcia (bass) — has inked a deal with Century Media Records. The band's long-awaited fourth album, "Anger Denial Acceptance", will be released in early June. Produced by Sarkisyan and Decker and mixed by Mike Plotnikoff (PAPA ROACH, BUCKCHERRY), the CD promises to surpass everyone's expectation of what SPINESHANK is capable of.

The official "lyric video" for one of the songs from the forthcoming effort, "Murder Suicide", can be seen below.

In a recent interview with FrontRowRock.com, Decker stated about "Anger Denial Acceptance", "It's three of the stages of grieving, rearranged a bit. I think it's something a lot of people can relate to; things ending, relationships, people. Members of this band have been through a lot in the last few years and it all came out in this record. This is the most personal record we've ever done. Everything you hear is real. The pain, anger and sadness come from a real place. It was not a fun record to make."

When asked about the recording process for the new CD, Decker said, "The recording process was a lot different this time. It was the first record where we didn't have an outside producer come in, we did it completely on our own. We also did it in different sessions. We'd write three or four songs and then go record them. Write three or four more and record them in a different studio. We actually took our Pro Tools rig to a cabin in Big Bear and did a lot of the vocals there. We were totally isolated from the outside world; we were able to fully focus and concentrate on the songs. It was a really cool way to record."

Speaking to Valerie Bastien of RockSource360, Sarkisyan stated about "Anger Denial Acceptance", "I think the biggest difference in making this record was that it was done by us from the writing stage all the way to tracking. We didn't have a label rep up our asses all the time and we just kind of had the freedom to do what we wanted, when we wanted and how we wanted. Musically, it's light years ahead of what 'Self-Destructive Pattern' was, as it should be. We all have grown as writers and performers, and we've gotten better at expressing ourselves in our music.

On the topic of the new album's title track and why the band felt it was a perfect fit to name the whole album after it, Mike said, "That song was like my 'baby' on this record. I had come up with the skeleton of it before bringing it up to the guys. I had a pretty clear idea of where it needed to be, musically. Those three words just kept ringing in my head the whole time I was putting this together. It's some of the stages of dealing with loss. Any kind of loss. It was the first time that me, Tommy and Jonny collaborated on lyrics. It sort of became the centerpiece of the record and although it's not a full concept album, the album does tie together in more ways than one. And it's not structured like a basic song either. It's not that 'verse/chorus/verse…' thing. It has three distinct and different parts that sorta tie in together and represent 'Anger Denial Acceptance'. I'm super happy with the way it came out and am very proud of it."

SPINESHANK's third and last album, "Self-Destructive Pattern", was released on September 9, 2003. The album's lead single, "Smothered", was nominated for a Grammy in the category of "Best Metal Performance".

Following his departure from SPINESHANK, Santos formed SILENT CIVILIAN, which released its debut album, "Rebirth of the Temple", in May 2006. A follow-up effort, "Ghost Stories", came out in May 2010 via Mediaskare/Century Media.




Comments