It was always going to be different. Regardless of what ended up happening between Strung Out’sprevious record—2019’s Songs Of Armor And Devotion—and this new collection of songs, it was alwaysthe band’s intention to step away from themselves a little bit with it. Although Dead Rebellion—theband’s 10th album of their remarkable 35 year career—was written during the height of the pandemicand is, as all Strung Out albums have been, a reaction to the world at large and their own personalexperiences within it, the band had already decided to end that chapter before Covid. A new beginninghad long been in the works.“We got to that point where I felt like if we kept going we’d be repeating ourselves,” explains vocalistJason Cruz. “And you know, we’re a fucking metal band—a punk metal band—and there’s only so muchyou can do before people start writing you off as losing your roots or whatever. We all have sideprojects, so we use those to go into left-field, but I think that this is the most we can do and keep ourfan base and actually take them in just a little bit of a slightly different direction. It’s more mid-tempoand more heavy, less worrying about speed. We were trying to be more melodic.”That’s not to say these 12 songs don’t pack a punch, but, at the same time, the way the five-piece—these days completed by guitarists (and founding members) Jake Kiley and Rob Ramos, bassistChris Aiken and drummer Daniel Blume—focus on melody over riffs is definitely noticeable.
