Though Drain are currently hyping themselves up for some summer festival dates, the crossover-crazed hardcore crew have circled back to deliver another preview from their forthcoming …IS YOUR FRIEND album. This time, the Santa Cruz, California, act are saluting founding drummer Tim Flegal and his ongoing battle with cancer, vis-à-vis the positive-spirited yet completely crushing new tune “Stealing Happiness From Tomorrow.”
The music video for the song, which follows last month’s “Nights Like These” single, tees it up that Flegal has been the driving force for Drain since founding the band in 2014. Up until recently, he’d never missed a show, but his cancer diagnosis has prevented him from taking part in the band’s recent shows — their current live drummer is manager James Aloisio
“He wants nothing more than to be with us now, but he’s at home kicking cancer’s ass,” it’s explained in the vid, which goes on to find Drain otherwise being Drain. In other words, they’re having a blast ripping through a metal-to-hardcore-stylized new song on stage, while behind-the-scenes footage of the group finds vocalist Sammy Ciaramitaro crowd-walkin’ atop his bandmates in the tour bus, and otherwise pallin’ around.
Lyrically, Ciaramitaro unpacks a ton of emotion as he screams of friendship, legacies and feeling “the love of the whole world pouring over me.”
As previously reported, …IS YOUR FRIEND was recorded live in the studio with producer Jon Markson (The Story So Far, Drug Church, One Step Closer), with a press release noting it features “100% real-time drums, no metronome, no programmed bullshit.” The album follows 2023’s Revolver favorite Living Proof and is available for pre-order on exclusive “patina rust splash” vinyl at Revolver’s shop.
Drain hit Mansfield, Ohio’s INKcarceration festival this Friday (July 18th), and will be stopping by the Long Beach, California edition of the Warped Tour later this month (the latter of which Flegal will be playing). The band also have a string of fall tour dates opening up for Kublai Khan TX. You’ll find all the tour details here.