Weston Super Maim is back to redecorate the extreme metal landscape with its staggering new studio album, “See You Tomorrow Baby”. Picking up where acclaimed 2021 EP “180-Degree Murder” left off, the new album sees the band in full command of its singular brain-destroying sound.
Emerging in the mid-2000s as a solo project from UK multi-instrumentalist Tom Stevens (All Of Space, Brown Stratos), Weston Super Maim cut its infant teeth in the MySpace and metal forum scene. But it wasn’t until 2020, when US-based Seth Detrick of Los Angeles thrash outfit PDP came on board to handle vocal duties, that the band fully sparked to life.
Drawing inspiration from the abstracted time signatures of Meshuggah, the groove and dissonance of Will Haven, and the god-tier riffs of Crowbar – not to mention the boundary-pushing musicianship of bands like Car Bomb and Humanity’s Last Breath – Weston Super Maim’s “See You Tomorrow Baby” is an expansive work of cutting-edge extremity. Spanning caveman heaviness, wild complexity and passages of stunning melody, the album nevertheless represents a focused and coherent experience, with the band’s dedication to creating huge riffs and breakdowns dragging the listener along for the ride. Guest spots from members of Frontierer, Soreption, and Blindfolded And Led to the Woods add extra dimensions to what is already a multifaceted record.
Written over a two-year period, “See You Tomorrow Baby” marks an evolution of Weston Super Maim’s sound, while also reaffirming the idiosyncratic approach on display in its previous releases. The writing process for the album began in early 2022. Instrumental drafts were recorded in Stevens’ London home studio while Detrick developed lyrical ideas and vocal patterns from his home in Eugene, Oregon. Early 2023 marked the first time the pair had met in real life, with Stevens taking a trip to Oregon for an intense week of recording vocals and getting hammered. Detrick returned the favor a few months later, making another dent in the recording process. Vocal tracking was completed in late 2023, with the mix and master going right down to the wire in early 2024.
Thematically, the album is a meditation on death and loss, drawn from the band’s personal experiences. Sometimes raw and visceral, sometimes abstract, the lyrics weave a reverential thread through a vast and important subject. Binding it all together again is the work of UK collage artist JoyPolloi, whose asteroid-esque creation ties the front and back covers together, invoking interplay between ideas of hope and hopelessness – representing the final piece of the Weston Super Maim jigsaw.
With vocal recording handled by Seth Detrick and Tom Stevens, “See You Tomorrow Baby” was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Tom Stevens, with additional recording/guest spots by Stace Fifield and Stuart Henley-Minchington (Blindfolded and Led To The Woods) who provide vocals to “Autistic Kill Trance”, Chad Kapper (Frontierer) who adds vocals to “Perfect Meadows in Every Direction,” and Ian Waye (Soreption) who provides an intense guitar solo to “The Bare Maximum”.
The lead single from “See You Tomorrow Baby” arrives in the form of the album’s crushing closing track, “Perfect Meadows in Every Direction”. Stevens notes, “We originally hadn’t intended this to be a single at all, but it’s so ridiculously over-the-top that at some point we realized it had to be. It’s a microcosm of the album as a whole – relentlessly heavy and packed with these wild riffs, but opening out into an epic, melodic passage too. Working with Chad of Frontierer on this one was an absolute honor; he is the GOAT. As soon as the breakdown was written we knew it would be perfect for him, and he just absolutely destroyed it. Overall, this track is everything Weston Super Maim is about. We know it’s been a little while since we released new music, so we hope people enjoy this and get hyped for the new album”.
Have your face displaced by Weston Super Maim’s “Perfect Meadows in Every Direction”, through a lyric video video (watch it below) and streaming at all digital points including Bandcamp here.
Weston Super Maim will independently release “See You Tomorrow Baby” on March 15th, 2024, on Bleach and Pink Splatter vinyl variants and all digital services. Preorders are now live at Bandcamp here and find Spotify presaves here.
Stand by for additional transmissions advancing “See You Tomorrow Baby” to post over the weeks ahead.
Tracklist:
1. See You Tomorrow Baby
2. Autistic Kill Trance
3. Slow Hell
4. Johnny Menomic
5. Brute Fact
6. The Bare Maximum
7. Kryptonite Renegade
8. Perfect Meadows in Every Direction
Line-up:
Tom Stevens – Guitar, bass, drums
Seth Detrick – Vocals
