POP EVIL Announces New Album 'What Remains', Shares 'Wishful Thinking' Music Video

Michigan rockers POP EVIL will release their eighth album, "What Remains", on March 21 via MNRK.

The vinyl pre-order on the band's web site begins this Friday, January 10.

To celebrate the news, the band has shared the video for the third single, "Wishful Thinking". Watch it below.

"'Wishful Thinking' pushes us into a realm that's deeper, darker, and more intense than ever before," says vocalist Leigh Kakaty.

For two decades, Kataky has needed to mine the deepest of reserves in order to drag POP EVIL up from the blue-collar grassroots of his local Michigan scene to stand proud at the top of the modern rock game. Soaring successes, bitter defeats… Kakaty has survived it all.

"What Remains" is the culmination and story of this journey with POP EVIL, laid bare like never before. Continuing in the recent vein of 2023's acclaimed "Skeletons", the new opus is both sonically and thematically POP EVIL's heaviest ever offering; a thundering collection of arena-ready modern rock and metal hits in which Kakaty opens heart, mind, and soul.

"There are a lot of issues and things that I've dealt with in this journey of POP EVIL that I've buried for a long time," the frontman explains of this document of resilience, perseverance, and accountability.

POP EVIL were born in North Muskegon, Michigan in 2001, Kakaty drawing on the lessons of a youth first shaped not by music, but by high school basketball — leadership, team work, the drive to improve in the lonely hours put in at the gym at 5 a.m., the will to win suppressing any fear — in order to fight tooth and nail for their break-out moment.

"I was hustling and learning every day to make my dreams come true," Kakaty recalls of his time playing local bars and slinging early EPs out of the back of his truck. "Studying never interested me. Neither did getting a regular job. A knee injury wrecked my shot at playing sports. Music was all I wanted to do from that moment, and I didn't give myself a backup plan. POP EVIL gave me a purpose, and a reason to get up every day. It became a crusade."

"Lipstick On The Mirror", POP EVIL's 2008 debut, and its follow-up, "War Of Angels", brought acclaim and global attention; 2013's "Onyx" delivered the first of the band's nine No. 1 singles and six RIAA-certified gold and platinum plaques, but also a period of darkness brought on by the grief of Kakaty losing his father. "I was completely lost … I had just missed the last five years with my dad, chasing this dream when I could have been with him. I didn't know if I wanted or could do POP EVIL anymore," he says. The band's 2017 self-titled album, opened by the smash-hit "Waking Lions" was written "pretty much to save my life" – but in turn "reminded me of the fire I have inside, and that God put me here to make music that could help people."

It's a mission statement enshrined in POP EVIL to this day — and which provided the spark for the genesis of "What Remains".

"You're always chasing that one song that can connect with that one person," Kakaty says. "And that process has to start with yourself. There's a lot of personal healing on this record, a lot of things I wanted to get out for my own mental well-being. I'm finally at a place where I can confront my demons."

Sonically, the album is a riotous explosion of life-affirming noise; a vortex of scything riffs and gut-punch drum beats that regularly give way to POP EVIL's hallmark anthemic choruses.

"We set out to push boundaries," nods Kakaty. "Metal has always been a part of our DNA, but we've never made it such a focal point before. A lot of writing on this record has been about listening to what my soul is saying and letting the songs find their own path, rather than chasing a sound that might fit in on the radio. I think you can really hear the mood and emotion of the album's themes in the music."

"What Remains" track listing:

01. The Bullet That Missed
02. Deathwalk
03. What Remains
04. Wishful Thinking
05. Side Effects
06. Criminal
07. Enough Is Enough
08. Zero To None
09. Knife For The Butcher
10. Overkill

Photo credit: Nick Fancher