MUSHROOMHEAD Shares New Single 'We Don't Care'

Cleveland, Ohio-based masked metal masters MUSHROOMHEAD have released the official visualizer for their latest single, "We Don't Care". The track is taken from MUSHROOMHEAD's upcoming ninth album, "Call The Devil", due out August 9 via Napalm Records. 30 years into their groundbreaking history, the band shows no signs of slowing down, proving innovative without losing sight of their trademark sound and imagery.

Returning after a 12-year hiatus, longtime guitarist Dave "Gravy" Felton — who performed on several of the band's biggest albums and is credited as a primary songwriter on classic anthems like "Along The Way", "Sun Doesn't Rise" and "The Dream Is Over" — contributes his trademark skills to two "Call The Devil" album tracks. The album once again features production by band mastermind/drummer Steve "Skinny" Felton, as well as the return of Matt Wallace (FAITH NO MORE, 3 DOORS DOWN) on mixing, also recognized for his work on MUSHROOMHEAD's iconic album "XIII". The album is also the band's first to feature mastering from Jacob Hansen (VOLBEAT, EPICA, ARCH ENEMY).

MUSHROOMHEAD's "Fall In Line" music video offered a first-person look at the band's new masks, featuring design elements and sculpting by Jordan Patton and guitarist Joe Gall. The track pummels with electro-industrial injections and spine-tingling keys, boasting a twisting vocal attack balancing both brutal and melodic sounds from vocalists Scott Beck and Jackie LaPonza.

Steve "Skinny" Felton said about "Fall In Line": "One of my favorite things about the 'Fall In Line' video is the use of the color red. It's a powerful and emotional color palette. 'Fall In Line' was actually the last song we recorded for the LP. It came together really fast. Upbeat, aggressive and fun."

Resulting in debuts at No. 2 on the U.S. Current Hard Music Albums chart and No. 8 on the Current Rock Albums chart, and with the unveiling of the band's first woman vocalist, Jackie LaPonza, MUSHROOMHEAD introduced a whole new slew of accessible, hard-hitting anthems on the "artistic breakthrough" (Loudwire),"A Wonderful Life", and have only aimed to expand on it with their ninth auditory onslaught.

Bursting with ominous intensity, album opener "Eye To Eye" launches with warning sirens and a grooving riff provided by Gravy, proving the band wastes zero time with filler on "Call The Devil". Eclectic tracks like the emotive, surprisingly jazzy anthem "Emptiness", dramatic carnival creeper "UIOP (A Final Reprieve)" and haunting "Hallelucination" showcase the more experimental side of MUSHROOMHEAD, while heavy burners such as the gripping "Prepackaged", charging and melodic "Hideous" and aggressive drum-forward "Torn In Two" cement the band's lauded metal renown. Featuring guitar work and writing from Gravy, the winding, dark "We Don't Care" proves to be a future live favorite with its chanting chorus and earworm hook as vocalists Steve Rauckhorst and Jackie LaPonza split leadership duties. "Call The Devil" brings the cinematic, signature style of musical mastermind and bassist/keyboardist Ryan "Dr. F" Farrell to the forefront, exploring piano-driven balladic auras and compelling with eerily Vaudevillian three-part vocal achievements on songs like "Decomposition", "Grand Gesture" and "Shame In A Basket", eventually veering into welcomed bizarre territory with album closer "Doom Goose".

Steve "Skinny" Felton said about the album title: "We played around with a few different album titles, and apparently 'Shout At The Devil' was already taken... so we figured we'd just try calling."

"Call The Devil" track listing:

01. Eye To Eye
02. Fall In Line
03. Emptiness
04. We Don't Care
05. UIOP (A Final Reprieve)
06. Prepackaged
07. Decomposition
08. Grand Gesture
09. Hallelucination
10. Hideous
11. Torn In Two
12. Shame In A Basket
13. Doom Goose

MUSHROOMHEAD is:

Steve Rauckhorst - Vocals
Scott Beck - Vocals
Jackie LaPonza - Vocals
Dave Felton - Guitar
Joe Gall - Guitar
Ryan Farrell - Guitar, Bass, Keys
Aydin Kerr - Drums, Percussion
Robert Godsey - Drums, Percussion
Steve Felton - Drums, Percussion, Keys, Vocals

In a recent interview with Belgian Jasper, Steve "Skinny" Felton spoke about the countless lineup changes MUSHROOMHEAD has gone through since its formation more than three decades ago. Asked if it is difficult finding members who are the right fit musically as well as on an artistic level, he responded: "I think when you're with the right creative people and there's a very similar mindset, and being very collaborative and open to critiquing and just hearing other people's ideas through, there's a bit of a balancing act, for sure; it's not always easy. But there's also an excitement. New blood brings new character to the table in many respects, and sometimes you don't know what you're going to get. So I think that is a little intriguing to me personally, especially in the artist realm. It's almost like stepping out of your comfort zone into the unknown. And you end up with something that you never thought you would or never really imagined before. So, it's a yin-yang type of thing, man… It's difficult, and if you have the patience and you have the like mindset with the people you're collaborating with, man, you can come up with some things that you never dreamed of."

Felton also addressed MUSHROOMHEAD's musical evolution and how it has been affected by the constant changes in personnel over the years. He said: "Well, I definitely think it definitely keeps it surprising because we don't even know what's gonna happen sometimes. There is the fear of that probably with many artists, that you get stale working with the same people, being, like I said, in your comfort zone. Getting out of your comfort zone to the point of you don't even know if it's gonna be anywhere near what you had before, sometimes that's scary for artists So, again, it is a difficult balance, for sure."

Referencing "Call The Devil", he said: "This is album number nine. And if people have like a good grasp on what we've done, and if you even are kind of new to it, if you looked at it almost more of like art and cinema than a traditional band and think of, like, say, Quentin Tarantino and all his movies, you know what kind of world you're getting into. And a lot of times it's the same actors and a lot of times it's the same style of movies, as far as there's gonna be comedy, there's gonna be drama, there's gonna be violence. You know what kind of world you're getting into, even if you don't know the exact characters. And he brings back a lot of the same people in different roles and same crew people, same cinematographers. So if you think in that kind of regard, that's kind of like a different way to look at what MUSHROOMHEAD does."

Photo credit: SK1