Exclusive: The new song and video by California hardcore crew The Warriors will knock your head back.
It's been almost a decade since Oxnard, California-based hardcore quintet The Warriors dropped their last album, 2011's See How You Are. At the same time, the band's legacy can be heard throughout heavy music today -- while the early 2010s were all about by metalcore and beatdown hardcore, The Warriors were incorporating some of the heaviness and bounce of bands like Snapcase and Downset, a tactic now present in the music of contemporary acts like Great American Ghost, Vein, and Code Orange. Now, the band is returning with a new record, Monomyth, which sees them reclaim the style they helped champion in the first place.
The band's new track and video, The Painful Truth, sees them embracing their classic style while at the same time incorporating new influences and sounds. The song itself is misanthropic, with frontman Marshall Lichtenwaldt snarling where he used to shriek and the guitars featuring an acidic buzz around the edges. The video, meanwhile, is a flickering montage of occult imagery, performance footage, and shots of the more vicious and venomous parts of California's wildlife.
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"The Painful Truth was the first song written and recorded for Monomyth," the band tells Kerrang!. "We wanted to throw all convention out the window and push the boundaries of our creativity in every respect, while still honoring the 'old' Warriors sound. In a sense, this song was the foundation upon which the rest of the album was built. In this early stage of the writing process, we had every intention of recording and releasing this music ourselves, free of any external influence or expectations. We're so grateful that Pure Noise ultimately raised their hand to help us with this release. They gave us all the freedom we needed to make this happen.
"Lyrically, the song addresses the need to burn our egos to the ground and to rise up with a full heart-- to unshackle ourselves and to have the courage to fulfill our dreams. Climb that mountain, read that book, write that song, reconnect. Exercise patience, compassion, civility and love. Ultimately, it comes down to the old aphorism, 'Know Thyself.' Reject the 'beautiful lie'. Suffer the 'painful truth' in order to make personal transformation. Never forget how powerful you really are."
Check out the exclusive premiere of The Painful Truth below:
The Warriors' Monomyth comes out Friday, December 13, on Pure Noise Records, and is available for pre-order.
Make sure to catch the band live on February 19 at The Underground in Mesa, AZ.
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