CLUTCH Issues Statement About New Album Artwork

CLUTCH has posted the following message regarding its latest album, "From Beale Street to Oblivion", which came out on March 27 through DRT Entertainment:

"A word about the artwork for 'From Beale Street to Oblivion'. Nick Lakiotes designed the artwork for 'From Beale Street to Oblivion'. He spent a long time generating original art and laying it out in what was to be a digipack format. A digipack, if you don't already know, is the all-paper style of packaging for CDs. We had approved a design that was to be in a matte paper complete with a removable booklet. It looked amazing. However, the U.S. pressing currently on the street features an unapproved design change in jewel case format. We apologize to Nick Lakiotes who worked so hard on his beautiful design and to our fans for not being able to purchase a better package, the type of packaging that we intended for this release."

Check out the video for "Electric Worry", filmed at the historic Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown, MD, at YouTube.

Produced by Joe Barresi (who has worked with KYUSS, TOOL, MELVINS, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, etc.),"From Beale Street to Oblivion" touches upon a myriad of hard rock styles — stoner rock, southern rock, blues metal, and plenty of tasty jams.

"This is probably the most 'live' album we have recorded," enthused frontman Neil Fallon about "Beale Street".

"We went out for a few weeks, and played the music on the road. So, when we went into the studio, all of us knew exactly what was going to happen — a first for CLUTCH. I don't know why we haven't done it this way all along; it's so much easier.

"We also recorded the basic tracks directly onto tape. Nothing digital in there at all. We haven't done that since 'The Elephant Riders'. And this record has a few more bluesy elements than has been the case in the past, but nothing so blatant that it could be called alien to what we do."

One of rock's most hard-working live bands, CLUTCH will be supporting the album (which is their third for the DRT label) with a world tour — including U.S., European, and Australian dates, as well as an appearance at the mammoth Bonnaroo Festival on June 14.

"Musically, we've become much more of a rock 'n' roll band now, as opposed to being a metal or hardcore one," said Fallon. "Our style is riff-oriented, with a swing. It's never been a calculated move; we just followed our instinct, and that is leading us closer to those bands to whom we listened in our childhood. Bands which are now termed as 'classic rock.'"