Returning technical metalcore outfit Becoming The Archetype have premiered ‘The Calling’ from their comeback album “Children Of The Great Extinction“. That record will be their first in a decade and Solid State Records will have it out on August 26th.
Guitarist/vocalist Seth Hecox commented:
“‘The Calling‘ holds a special place in my heart. It was one of the first songs I began writing riffs for a couple years ago when we were in the early stages of writing songs for this new album. As I was putting it together, it almost felt like I was channeling the old-school BtA spirit. I mean, that original ‘Terminate Damnation‘ energy.”
Our producer Nate started working on it with me, and pulled out even more interesting facets of things that we’ve done since the beginning that have become our characteristically unique calling cards. Together, we crafted a big, epic intro with orchestration — horns and everything. Then after making it huge, it gets… tiny. Quiet. Still. A single, haunting piano. And that’s where I think Jason hit a home run on the lyrics for this song. In my spiritual tradition, profound truth often comes not in the loud bombastic proclamations, but in the calm of the still, small, quietness.
So I was supercharged when he wrote those lines we sing together: ‘Close your eyes and follow the light / Let reality bend itself around you / By conviction and not by sight / Answer the call from deep within you.’ This song hearkens to that idea, and the power inherent in a calling: the sense of fulfillment, the notion of vocation, as well as the challenges and trials and tribulations that inevitably accompany those things. Thus, the ending lines: ‘Open the door and step inside / All you need to do now is survive.’
Often, in my life serving a parish, walking beside people in their final moments, accompanying them through the valley of the shadow of death, one starts to feel the crushing weight of the experience. But once you’ve heard the calling, and stepped through that door, there’s no going back, even if you feel yourself sliding sideways into insanity. And at times like that, just like with this haunting, old school BtA metal song: All you have to do now is survive.”
“Children Of The Great Extinction” Track Listing:
- The Dead World
- The Lost Colony (video)
- The Remnant (stream)
- The Calling
- The Phantom Field
- The Awakening
- The Hollow
- The Ruins (feat. Demon Hunter’s Ryan Clark)
- The Curse
- The Sacrament
Pre-orders for the album have also gone up over at this location.
Jason Wisdom said the following:
“The task of creating a new album after 10-plus years away from the band felt very daunting for me, to say the least. It’s not a matter of creating new music. I’ve written and released more than 50 songs in the past decade with other projects. The real difficult part was the idea of trying to recapture the true spirit of Becoming the Archetype.
Nostalgic fans have expectations that are impossible to meet. Those of us in the band have unique life stories that we bring to the table after all of this time apart — we have grown in different ways as people and creatively. So when we finally set out to accomplish this ‘comeback’ album, we all agreed that this needs to feel like what people remember when they think of BtA. Other than that, we just did like we always used to — we chased the sounds we like.
We hope that old fans will listen and feel like they’re visiting an old friend after many years. At the same time, we hope that new fans will discover something that is fresh and feels current.”
He also added:
“This new album isn’t just about making more music, but about re-capturing the original artistic spirit of the band. ‘Children of the Great Extinction’ is not just another BtA album. It is a fully realized vision of Becoming the Archetype that we’ve always wanted to put forth. When you hear it, I hope you think, ‘Becoming the Archetype is back!’”
Seth Hecox commented as well:
“Thematically, it reflects the reality of our current humanitarian situation. Existential dread pervades our existence. People have experience with real monsters in addition to facing our own mortality. These things are evident not only in metal culture, but greater culture as well. We touch upon all of this as well as the possibility of redemption and salvation from those terrors.”
Visualizer video for ‘The Calling’
