UGLY KID JOE's New Album To Arrive In Early 2027 Via BLKIIBLK

In a new interview with "Reckless" Rexx Ruger of Pod Scum, UGLY KID JOE guitarist and producer Dave Fortman revealed that the band's upcoming studio album will be released through BLKIIBLK, the heavy metal imprint of Frontiers Label Group. Dave said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We're gonna do a deal with [BLKIIBLK], as far as I know. And so that pushes [the release of the new UGLY KID JOE LP] to quarter one of next year, which is — it's all good news because, basically, there's someone behind it now, rather than just a completely independent release like we did on [UGLY KID JOE's latest album, 2022's] 'Rad Wings Of Destiny'. So we're stoked. And also it coincides with the boys going over to Australia. And there's touring stuff being lined up just to kind of get it all into one pile and get the promotion side of it happening full on."

Fortman added: "I'm excited about it. Obviously, I'm really proud of this record, so I was dying to hear it come out sooner, but all good. Nothing's really rushed in this case, and it is really important to stack the cards right to release it."

Asked about his previous comment that the new UGLY KID JOE album will be "more metal" than "Rad Wings Of Destiny", Dave said: "We're definitely metal — absolutely — and this album is even more of a reflection of really… I wouldn't say it's more like [UGLY KID JOE's debut album] 'America's Least Wanted'. I guess in some ways it is, but every song's got chunk in. And there's a lot of, I think, throwback in this one to more, actually, metal from the traditional sense of [JUDAS] PRIEST and that era. There's a lot of that, what you would consider the early metal. Not so much glam metal, or not so much even thrash metal, but just straight-up, old-school metal. There's a few songs like that. And, look, there, there's just a lot of great hooks on it."

Regarding the songwriting process for UGLY KID JOE's upcoming effort, Dave said: "We wrote for a long time. Me and Whit [UGLY KID JOE vocalist Whitfield Crane] had a power session writing together. That was the first time that we've used this amount of co-writing and me translating all the riffs out of his head. And there's some songs that are completely out of his head that I was able to pull out, put them on guitar and then allow him to sit in the room and just come up with stuff and start writing lyrics to it. And literally a couple of those are, I think, my favorite. One of his songs is almost completely, except for the chorus progressions, [is] entirely out of his brain — the riff for the verse, the verse hook. But the vocal parts are all him. And he just came to life, man, as such a prolific songwriter this time around. He's always been good, but I think this is outstanding writing on his part."

Dave continued: "My favorite song on the record is a song called 'Great Divide'. I don't think anybody cares if I give one of the titles away, but, yeah, it's just such a great song. And it's just one of those things where we just kept going over and over and over and over things until we loved every single second of it… I think there's, like, five different versions of one song that became another really, really, really great tune that was mostly out of Whit's head, and it was called 'Icarus'. And we beat that one, and it was originally called something else, and we just beat it to death and it became something entirely different. But that process, I think, in my personal opinion, has created one of the greatest records we've done or that I've been a part of writing, for sure."

Fortman also talked about the songwriting contributions of fellow UGLY KID JOE guitarist Klaus Eichstadt, who is one of the main creative forces in the band, alongside Fortman and Crane. He said: "Klaus has, in this process of writing for this new one, I think, come up with easily my favorite thing… He has one song on this one that is absolutely stunning. All of his songs, and I think there's three of them on there, are fucking great songs, man. So I'm really proud of him too."

Dave, who has helmed several huge rock and metal albums over the years, including those by EVANESCENCE, GODSMACK and SLIPKNOT, also talked about his role as producer on UGLY KID JOE's upcoming effort. He said: "I feel like this was really the first album that I put this much production into as a producer… And I think I really was able to do it with Klaus a lot, get him to open up and encourage him to come forward and try to really, really write his ass off. And boy, did he... That, in combination with calling Whit and saying, 'Look, let's fucking start writing some songs. Let's just get into it and see what happens. I wanna start translating some riffs outta your head.' And we took time and took enough time to really get into it and really give Klaus a chance to sit and be inspired and go nuts when he was at home writing. And, yeah, I'm real excited for the fans to hear it. I think they'll be really blown away by it. I know I am."

Eichstadt revealed last year that former JUDAS PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing recorded a guest appearance on UGLY KID JOE's upcoming album.

"Rad Wings Of Destiny" saw UGLY KID JOE re-teaming producer Mark Dodson who was behind the desk for the band's debut album, "America's Least Wanted", which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2022.

In the spring of 2023, UGLY KID JOE completed its first U.S. tour in 27 years.

After a 15-year hiatus, UGLY KID JOE reformed in 2012 and has toured extensively throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

The band released the EP "Stairway To Hell" in 2012 and the full-length "Uglier Than They Used Ta Be" in 2015.

Six years ago, Crane told Eonmusic about UGLY KID JOE's huge success on the back of single "Everything About You" in 1991: "'Eye of the storm' is a good way to put it, because it just was all happening at a deadly fast gait. And it was a lot — it was beautiful and also very challenging, because there's a lot of people that surround the business of music that are full of shit. But when you're 23 [or] 24, you don't know how to negotiate that, so on one hand, it was super fun and we did all the things you should do at that age, and on the other hand, it was too much for me. But we survived it, and I can deal with it all now."