Archspire have released the documentary Bring Back The Danger, a fascinating behind the scenes vision into the making of their critically acclaimed album Bleed The Future.
“A few years ago,” Archspire said, “someone in our band had the brilliant idea to bring in a videographer to film the writing and recording process of our most recent album, Bleed The Future. So after dozens of hours of editing down the footage of us talking about our penises, our videographer Connor Gilkinson managed to scrape together this documentary.
“It takes place between August 2019, and December 2020, along with some footage of our album release shows November 2021. We hope you enjoy it.”
Archspire released the album Relentless Mutation in 2017, a piece described as an innovation of sound and technique that was delivered in great style by the Tech death titans.
With the pressure of a follow-up, the original plan to complete the new album between the various tours scheduled for 2020 came to an abrupt Covid-19 induced halt, causing the band to turn inward and apply additional rigour to their songwriting process.
“The benefit we had was that Relentless came out in 2017,” guitarist Dean Lamb said. “Since then, we toured more than we ever did before. We had the viewpoint of ‘What do crowds like? What parts should we write more of? What parts do people give us good feedback on?’
“We wanted to expand and write those parts more consistently — there are more hooks, and when we do have hooks, we wanted to repeat those parts, so people will know that this is the catchy part of the song.”
“The most important thing was that we had clever songwriting,” drummer Spencer Prewett says. “We wanted the album to be more accessible to more people but still keep it extreme, fast and technical.
“So, we changed our process this time. We recorded rehearsals every day and listened to what we did afterwards. We’d then come back to the jam spot and change riffs and ideas based on what everyone was thinking about during the week. It resulted in an album that everyone was happier with.”
There were fan questions of whether the band could top Relentless Mutation, which led the band to ensure that all five members were happy with everything, down to the last riff, vocal line, bass run, and drum pattern.
“Audience expectation is really important,” Lamb says. “If we leave the jam spot and everyone is stoked on a song, it’s pretty likely that the audience will be stoked. We have the expectation of the audience, but we also have to be pumped on the music. I feel the proudest of the music. We spent more time on the songs and got better at writing. I feel it’s better music.”
With over half a million views on YouTube alone of the track Drone Corpse Aviator, it is safe to say that fans embraced the Bleed The Future album and the band’s position of one of Death Metal’s most forward-thinking bands is assured.
“We have a lot of awesome fans,” Lamb says, “so I think they’ll be there to support us and pick up the album because they like the music. We’re a self-managed band. We’ve been working with the same label for ten years, and I think the outcome will be good.
“Would it have been better if we had been on a full North American tour starting a week before the album release? Sure, but I think people will come out and support us through other means.
“As soon as we’re ready to go back on tour and everybody is safe to do so, we’ll be out there.”
