HALESTORM Was 'Ready' To Get Heavier On 'Vicious' Album

HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale was recently interviewed on "Whiplash", the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie. You can now listen to the chat below.

Speaking about the heavier musical direction of HALESTORM's latest album, "Vicious", compared to its predecessor, 2015's "Into The Wild Life", Lzzy said: "I think that we were just ready to do that. And I have to be completely honest with you: it wasn't necessarily a conscious choice. When we were in the studio, we literally were in a log cabin in the woods in the middle of Franklin, Tennessee, with no distractions around whatever. So we kind of were a little closed off, and we were just chasing whatever got us excited. And we happen to like heavy music. Now, in the same aspect as our last record, 'Into The Wild Life', we were chasing after something else and we were getting into certain things that we were just kind of into at the moment. And it literally was a snapshot of where we were at in our lives. So in that aspect, we didn't wanna repeat ourselves — we didn't wanna do that record again. So this was just kind of where we were at in our heads. And it's so funny, 'cause it wasn't until we started playing some new songs live against the rest of our catalog that… I remember the first time we did that, I think we started playing 'Black Vultures' a couple of months before we had finished the record, and I remember telling the guys: 'I think that we're making this heavy record compared to what we've done before. I didn't know we were really doing that.' But, honestly, I think that we were just ready to do that now. And I know as bands age and they go down that, 'Well, we're just gonna get lighter and take it easier on ourselves.' And I look at this record and I'm, like, 'We did not take it easy on ourselves at all.' [Laughs]"

HALESTORM has announced a month-long North American tour, kicking off April 12 at Ladson, South Carolina's 98 Rockfest and running through Columbus, Ohio's Sonic Temple, with dates across the continent, including a stop at Mexico City's Domination Festival in early May. PALAYE ROYALE and BEASTO BLANCO will open for HALESTORM on the run of dates, which follow HALESTORM's trek abroad in March with performances at Download festival in Australia and Japan.

"Vicious" was released last July via Atlantic. The disc was recorded at Nashville, Tennesse's Rock Falcon recording studio with producer Nick Raskulinecz.

HALESTORM was nominated for a "Best Rock Performance" Grammy Award for its song "Uncomfortable".

In 2012, the band won its first Grammy in the category of "Best Hard Rock/ Metal Performance" for "Love Bites (So Do I)". According to the Grammy web site, Lzzy became the first woman to earn a Grammy in the category.