When Pallbearer announced last month that they would play a stretch of headlining tour dates throughout June, lead vocalist/guitarist/synthesizer player Brett Campbell coyly said in a press statement that the band might unveil “some material that no one has heard yet.”
On Saturday, the doom-metal demigods treated attendees of Mutants of the Monster Fest to some of that material in their home city of Little Rock, Arkansas. The festival-goers witnessed three brand-new Pallbearer songs that aren’t available anywhere yet. Audiences at the band’s other June shows, including their June 18 set at Oblivion Access in Austin, Texas.
Pallbearer’s decision to unveil new tunes inevitably provoked the question: Are they done with a new record?
On Tuesday, Campbell exclusively confirmed to New Noise that Pallbearer have, in fact, finished recording their fifth studio album.
“We have a couple of odds and ends to finish up when we get home, but we’re about 85% done,” Campbell says. “We’re hoping to have it mixed by August, and maybe we can get it out by next spring.”
Indeed, Campbell acknowledged rumors that Pallbearer entered the studio as early as 2020 to start working on their next album. It will be the successor to Forgotten Days (Nuclear Blast), which came out that same year. Now, they’re finally putting the finishing touches on it.
“It was never supposed to have been this long of a break (between albums) for us,” he says. “But (after going) through all that time, we recorded another album we just got done (with). We’ve spent years on it at this point. In my opinion, it’s going to be a huge surprise for people.”
Despite what could be roughly a yearlong wait to hear the new Pallbearer album, which is still untitled, they’re not going to sit on the new material till then.
“We’re excited about (the new material)—and that’s what we’ve been rehearsing,” Campbell says. “That’s what most of this year has been for us: really honing in and perfecting these songs. …In the way that Forgotten Days was a stew of all our other stuff, this is something else. It’s something we haven’t done before.”
Photo courtesy of Pallbearer
