Metal Anarchy

During a recent interview with Kerrang!, Code Orange discussed their new album “The Above” (out September 29). According to vocalist Jami Morgan, the effort is “definitely a brother or sister record to ‘Underneath.’”

Morgan said the following:

“It’s definitely a brother or sister record to Underneath, with a lot of shared themes. But this comes from a more personal and emotional point of view, with a lot of sonic differences – both by design and via the feelings we wanted to convey. Underneath felt very digital, technological, claustrophobic.

This album is more open and natural. There are still tinges of the digital in there – like a sci-fi through-line – but The Above is more human, in how we made it, what its about, and the whole aesthetic. It completes a journey that we started with I Am King.”

He later continued:

“There are a lot of things drawn from the pandemic experience and everyday life, but, ultimately, it stems from the same thing that all our records do. There is a continuity between this and our other three albums [2012’s ‘Love Is Love/Return To Dust‘ excluded as a ‘Code Orange Kids’ release].

It has a lot in common with I Am King, particularly, in that both records are about self-worth, self-confidence, self-assurance. I Am King is about forcing yourself to feel that. This record is the other side of the coin: accepting whatever ‘yourself’ is, regardless of where it leads you. There’s a lot of synergy, but, in the end, it’s all about the journey of self.”

He also added:

“It’s a departure. It’s challenging. It has hip-hop, alternative, trip-hop, ’gazey stuff, hard rock, breakdowns. There are a lot of cool hardcore parts in there, but there’s also a lot of melody, a lot of melodic songs that are hard in the way that rock music should be hard. Generally speaking, we’ve never fit in with any group of people for more than a short period of time.

We come from the hardcore scene, and that’ll always be the spirit of our band, but we didn’t really fit into that on our first record before we’d met those people. We’ve always done it the same way, just with different balances. We always build upon what we’ve already done. And we don’t build backwards.”