BLACK VEIL BRIDES Have More Than Half A Dozen 'Incredible' Songs For Follow-Up To 'The Phantom Tomorrow'

BLACK VEIL BRIDES vocalist Andy Biersack and drummer Christian "CC" Coma (born Christian Mora) spoke to Rock Sound at last weekend's Download festival in the U.K. about the band's plans to follow up last year's "The Phantom Tomorrow" album. The LP was a concept effort about the antihero character The Blackbird and a group of societal outcasts known as simply as The Phantom Tomorrow.

Andy said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We've got probably six to eight songs that are what we feel is like kind of an extension of ['The Phantom Tomorrow'] story. I'm not sure how they're gonna get released. Originally we wanted to do a part two and everything else. So we don't know. It may be that you'll get some singles or duologies or whatever you wanna call it from this, but we've got some material. We were just talking about it in the car the other day."

Added CC: "It's incredible. We got the final mixes and stuff, and listening to it. I mean, they're some of my favorite BLACK VEIL songs we've ever done. You've never sounded better," he said, speaking to Andy. "I think that we just jelled so well together during this whole process and the pandemic, and I think just creatively bouncing off of each other, I think this is the best we've ever been, to be honest."

"The Phantom Tomorrow" came out last October via Sumerian Records. The third concept LP from BLACK VEIL BRIDES and the band's most-ambitious release to date is comprised of a dozen tracks, including the band's first-ever U.S. Top 10 Active Rock single "Scarlet Cross".

The cover artwork for "The Phantom Tomorrow" was created by Eliran Kantor, known for his work with TESTAMENT, HATEBREED, HAVOK and Andy Black, to name a few. "The Phantom Tomorrow" was produced by Erik Ron (GODSMACK, DANCE GAVIN DANCE, BUSH) and co-produced by guitarist Jake Pitts.

Biersack previously discussed the lyrical themes covered on "The Phantom Tomorrow" in a 2021 interview with "Cutter's Rockcast". He said: "It's a concept record. The story is essentially the idea… In our society, especially now, we have this love of building up heroes and obsessing over other people who often don't give a shit about you or anybody else, and we kind of have these false idols and heroes. And so the story is kind of about taking this mythological character and the people putting all of this power on to them, and then ultimately turning their back on the character because nobody can fulfill the dreams and ideas that you put on somebody else. So it's an alternate version of our own timeline where our obsession with heroes and the iconography of somebody that's aspirational kind of gets out of control and becomes our whole society."

Regarding how he came up with "The Phantom Tomorrow" concept, Andy said: "In January of [2020], I just kind of sat down and started writing this story. I do a lot of drawing when I'm writing as well. I'm not great, but I like to be able to represent my ideas in that way. So I wrote out this whole story and drew character designs, and then, about a week and a half later, we were set to enter the studio, and it just kind of coincidental that this whole rush of this idea came to me. And so I went to the studio with everybody and said, 'Look, this is what I think we should do,' and laid out the story and the plot and the ideas. 'Cause we've done concept records before. The kind of method that we've found is best is I give the concept and the ideas, as far as the narrative perspective, to the band, and then that is how we write as a band together, to get tone and how we are gonna get through this journey. I will take those songs and then go basically write the lyrics to serve the story and plotlines along the journey from song one to the last song.

"There are unfortunate kind of shackles that are put on it — meaning that you've gotta write within the context of what you're writing," he continued. "But I tried to keep this one more open-ended where it's applicable… 'Cause I didn't wanna write about stuff I don't know; I wanted it to be about my experience. And there's really nothing about our story that doesn't mimic the current situation, whether it's on a personal level with people that I've known, or on a sociopolitical level, with the craziness of the world right now. The ideas are universal, and so that made it a little bit easier to kind of get through the journey."

In November 2019, BLACK VEIL BRIDES announced the addition of bassist Lonny Eagleton to the group's ranks. He joined the band as the replacement for Ashley Purdy, who exited the group earlier that month.

Eagleton previously played with Biersack (a.k.a. Andy Black) on his solo tour.