August Burns Red have unveiled a monster tune they may well be playing this year on their upcoming joint tour with the Amity Affliction. Dubbed “Behemoth,” the vicious track also signals the metalcore lifers’ reunion with Fearless Records.
The track hits hard with thrash-pierced speediness, scythe-sharp guitar licks, brutally percussive chug sections and plenty of rage-gnarled screams from vocalist Jake Luhrs. Guitarist JB Brubaker noted in a statement that ABR believe “it’s one of the heaviest and most raw songs we’ve ever delivered.”
A press release explains that the song is about “past pains living through present actions in life,” while simultaneously working oneself towards healing and rebirth (“I had to suffocate to stop the suffering”). Luhrs adds: “It’s about cutting the ties to your past, giving it no space to live in the present, and inevitably, changing the course of your life.”
The song marks the band’s return to Fearless Records, with whom they’d issued three albums between 2015 and 2020, the last of which being 2020’s Guardians. No further details have been offered on when to expect the next ABR album.
Despite that, August Burns Red will soon launch their North American “Spring Horizons” tour with Australian post-hardcore unit the Amity Affliction. The trip begins April 10th at the Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts, and closes at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s Fillmore on May 17th. The rest of the schedule can be found here.