CLUTCH Announces 'Robot Hive/Exodus' Collector's Series Vinyl Reissue

Groove rock masters CLUTCH have announced the second release of their Collector's Series vinyl reissues today. Getting the reimagined treatment this time is the band's 2005 classic "Robot Hive/Exodus", curated by bassist Dan Maines. The vinyl release is remastered and manufactured on 180-gram colored vinyl, stored in extra-heavy sleeves and limited to only 7,500 units worldwide. The gatefold jacket is printed on metalized polyester paper, and each album includes a numbered insert autographed by the band. As an extra special element, this 2xLP includes a seven-inch single with two tracks: "What Would A Wookie Do?" and "Bottoms Up, Socrates". These two songs were originally among the 16 songs written and recorded for "Robot Hive/Exodus" back in 2005 but were left off the final album due to time constraints.

Maines comments: "I'm very excited for the CLUTCH Collector's Series release of 'Robot Hive/Exodus'. With the additional seven-inch you can now hear the complete recording session remastered. We consistently play a number of these songs in our live sets every night and have even dusted off a couple more for our current tour."

The first album in this new series was "Blast Tyrant" curated by drummer Jean-Paul Gaster. The "Robot Hive/Exodus" artwork is in the vein of the original "Blast Tyrant" yet strikingly different.

CLUTCH recently released a brand new track, "Red Alert (Boss Metal Zone)", which was an homage to sci-fi author Philip K. Dick. The track and its accompanying video have clocked up 585,000 streams since release. Longtime fans of Dick, the members of CLUTCH have also curated a fun "inspired by" Sci-Fidelity playlist on Spotify to coincide with the release of the single.

CLUTCH has just wrapped up a two-leg trek across North America and has an extensive 2022 worldwide touring schedule, including summer festivals, further headline dates, and a return to Europe.

Early last year, Gaster told the Chicago-based webzine Metal Kaoz that he and his CLUTCH bandmates had "written a lot of songs" for the follow-up to 2018's "Book Of Bad Decisions" LP. He said: "We've been writing now for our new album, and I think we're spending more time than ever in the studio, just trying out different ideas. And most of the ideas don't ever really make it to the end; we try 10 things and we keep one.

"I think we are even more selective than we were before as to which ideas we really decide to focus on. And I think it is because we have so much more time. Before, we would come home for a tour and maybe we would have three weeks off. So, the first week, we don't do really much of anything — everybody goes back home to their families and we rest — and then the next two weeks we would get together and we would just jam really hard and get a bunch of ideas, and then on the road and play those ideas, and then come back and do it again. And that process might go on for a year and a half. This has been different. This is the first time where we've had so much time at home to work on ideas and never really tried them in a live setting. So I'm not sure how it's gonna impact the record. But I think it's gonna make for a different album — whether it's good, bad or otherwise, it's too early to tell. But, for sure, it's a different dynamic, and it requires more of us.

"So often, when we have new ideas and we put them in front of an audience, you can really tell right away — we know right away if the song is the right tempo, we know right away if the riffs are where they need to be, if the chorus is the way it needs to be," Gaster added. "It's a testing ground. And we don't have that right now. So, for that reason, I think we are being a lot more careful about what ideas we really wanna focus on, and which ones we think, 'You know what? We've done that before. Let's do something a little different.'"

"Book Of Bad Decisions" was recorded at Sputnik Sound studio in Nashville, Tennessee with producer Vance Powell. The record sold 26,000 copies in America during its first week of availability, giving the group its third consecutive Top 20 album on the Billboard 200.