Welsh metallers BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE will release their new, self-titled studio album on November 5. The follow-up to 2018's "Gravity" was previously described by frontman Matt Tuck as "brutal, heavy and technical" as well as "more visceral and passionate than it's ever been." Asked by the "Everblack" podcast how the switch to a more aggressive approach came about, Tuck said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It just was what it was. We just kind of hit upon this sound and this way of writing songs right now in our career which we couldn't be happier with. I just feel like the last six albums in 15 years plus has just all been channeling to this. That's how it sounds to me. It's got everything that you would expect from BULLET but just on a completely different level. The melodies are stronger, the riffs are more intense, the drumming is ferocious, just the feel of the record as a whole is pretty intense. There are moments of calm, like 'Can't Escape The Waves' and 'Rainbow Veins' and moments where you get a bit more melody for your buck. We're just in a good place creatively and musically right now; it just keeps pouring out of us. We've got so much more stuff that's not on the record that we can release post-record as well; [we've got] another six tracks ready to go. We're just a songwriting machine right now. So it feels good, man." As for the decision to make the new album a self-titled affair, Tuck said: "It just feels like the band is in a different place, man. It feels fresher and more energized than ever. After we'd recorded the record and lived with it, the management were, like, 'It's time, boys.' We didn't think about it, really, but it was suggested to us by a lot of people around us. They're not emotionally involved in the writing and recording of it like the band; they just kind of hear it like you guys are hearing it, and they're, like, 'Fuck.' It just feels like the time is right to really put the band's name as a stamp on what we do and it just feels like the time is right. And I don't feel like the record could be any better, and I don't feel it could [better] represent where the band is and who it is right now in 2021." Tuck began writing the album in September 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic brought things screeching to a halt in early 2020. But in June 2020, Tuck and longtime producer, Carl Bown, who co-produced the band's 2015 album, "Venom", and produced and mixed "Gravity", picked up the pace again. Together, they hunkered down at Treehouse Studio in Chesterfield, where the remainder of the album was written. "Gravity" saw the metal juggernauts' catalog surpass one billion streams in the U.S. That accomplishment solidifies BULLET's hard-earned status as one of the most elite bands in the hard rock scene. On the last cycle, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE played its biggest shows to date, including a U.K. arena tour and a massive show at London's Alexandra Palace.
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