Empire, the new video from the Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based Christian metalcore quintet August Burns Red, can be viewed below. The song comes off the band’s fourth album, “Leveler”, which sold around 29,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 11 on The Billboard 200 chart.
“The Empire video shoot was an exhausting 8 hours of sweating and head banging,” explains guitarist JB Brubaker. “But it was worth the exhaustion as I think it’s the coolest performance video we ever did. I especially like the old-school ‘Godzilla’-looking shots that are in the middle and the coloring and filters that were applied to the post production brought everything together.”
Leveler was released on June 21 via Solid State Records. The effort was made available in both regular and deluxe editions — a first for the band.
For Leveler, August Burns Red re-teamed with producer Jason Suecof, the man behind the board on the band’s previous CD, 2009’s Constellations, which landed at No. 24 on The Billboard 200 and sold more than 90,000 copies. The result is an album that pushes the band’s sonic boundaries in every direction, yet emerges as an unquestionably heavier album than its predecessor.
“Putting out a fourth record is a little scary because we obviously have our sound figured out at this point, but we don’t want to put out a record that just sounds like a redux of our previous albums,” explains JB Brubaker. “Our tastes are always evolving as musicians and we’ve been motivated to progress as a band and push ABR in different directions, while maintaining the characteristics that made us the band we are in the first place.”
While August Burns Red has never succumbed to the artistic trends in metal album covers, Leveler represents an even larger departure than fans have seen on the band’s previous albums. The artwork, created by artist Jordan Crane, brings a striking comic book flair that the band wanted the artwork to encompass.
Visit the Eastpak Antidote Tour:
09/11 – GER Munich
11/11 – NL Tilburg
12/11 – BEL Brussels
15/11 – UK Manchester
17/11 – UK Nottingham
18/11 – UK London
19/11 – UK London
The show in 013 Tilburg on 11th November is the only show in the Netherlands. For only €26 you can enjoy all four of the bands and of course the circle pits and mosh-pits as named in the video. An extra local act will be added to the line-up later. The presale started recently so make sure to buy your tickets!
Related articles:
August Burns Red – Leveler (Deluxe Edition) [CD review]
‘Eastpak Antidote Tour 2011′ with ‘August Buns Red’ and others [Sept. 2011]
‘Brick By Brick’ – ‘Connecting Cultures, Creating Community’ [Aug. 2011]