HALESTORM Stays Away From Politics And Religion On Its Albums

In a brand new interview with Scotty Mars of the Live 105 radio station in Halifax, HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale was asked if it was hard to avoid writing about politics on the band's latest album, "Vicious", in light of the current political and social climates in the U.S. "Absolutely," she responded (hear audio below). "We even said that early on, because there have been some people that have picked certain things out from our record that we weren't necessarily consciously trying to do. We kind of stay away from politics and religion; with those two things, you can't really win. So it's one of those things where we kind of stay away from it — we just wanna rock; that's all we wanna do. But it is really hard not to let that stuff soak in, because it's just there — always, especially nowadays. Whereas before, you could kind of ignore it — you're, like, 'Oh, people that are into politics, they're paying attention to that.' And now everybody's into it, and it affects so many different people, and it affects friendships. So, for us, our main goal is, like, 'All right, we can't necessarily escape it, but since we're in a position where people are going to listen to what we're doing, let's make sure we put out some empowerment, we put some positivity out there, because there's too much crap going on right now.' So that was kind of our m.o. But, yeah, it's definitely tough."

About a month before the most recent U.S. presidential election, Lzzy said that she was "into equality" and insisted that she couldn't "out of good conscience" vote for anybody who built his or her empire on "division and hate and inequality."

Although she initially said that she was a Bernie Sanders supporter, Lzzy later expressed concern that he would "die the first year in office" if he got into the White House. Hale went on to say that she would "definitely not" vote for Donald Trump, explaining that she has "just never been a fan."

"Vicious" was released on July 27 via Atlantic. The disc was recorded last year at Nashville, Tennesse's Rock Falcon recording studio with producer Nick Raskulinecz.

Raskulinecz is an acclaimed producer who has previously worked with RUSH, KORN, ALICE IN CHAINS and DEFTONES, in addition to having produced HALESTORM's third covers EP, "ReAniMate 3.0: The CoVeRs eP", which came out in January 2017.

HALESTORM's "Uncomfortable" recently landed at the top of Billboard's Mainstream Rock Songs airplay chart. It was the band's fourth No. 1, and it tied HALESTORM with THE PRETTY RECKLESS for the most chart toppers by a female-fronted act. It was also the first No. 1 by a woman or woman-led act on Mainstream Rock Songs since THE PRETTY RECKLESS made it to the top with "Take Me Down" in November 2016.