Los Angeles, California: The long wait is over. With the release today of IV-Rx, Outlaw Industrial Rockers Chmcl Str8jckt end close to three years of recorded silence with their most dramatic album yet, and their first since the installation of producer John “JB” Bechdel (Ministry, Killing Joke) as their full time synth master.
Frontman and keyboard player Kevin Snell enthuses, “It is an evolution, for sure, as we went with more focus on the ‘rock’ part of ‘industrial rock.’ We were definitely more picky with everything...redoing many tracks. Mike C would re-record his guitars.....JB would replace my synths with better sounding synths, etc.
Stuffed full with pulsing synthesizers, coruscating riffery, the darkest themes and the mightiest of crowd-crunching hooks, the album “continues our evolution of Outlaw Industrial Rock. But while it's still a very digital album, we concentrated much more on the guitar riffs and guitar sound. It's just where we drifted to...and we are all happy with the vibe. It's still full of dark themes and synths and atmospheres, but I wrote around Mike C's riffs in many cases....allowing the guitar to share the stage more.”
IV-Rx also marks the first occasion upon which the trio of Snell, C and JB have worked on an album completely remotely, from Texas, New Jersey and Pennsylvania respectively.
“We had to learn to communicate without being in the same room,” says Snell, “which took us a few weeks to figure out! It certainly helps to be in a band with two of the greatest guys that I've ever known.
“And, it's all worth it when you get that mix of a new song that makes everyone smile. It's an album that really represents us all in themes and instrumentation.”
To help celebrate the album’s release, Chmcl Str8jckt have also dropped a lyric video for one of the album’s stand-out tracks, the aptly-titled “The Devil Made Me Do It”… “it’s not a new single,” says Snell, “but it’ll give you a good idea of what to expect from the album.”
IV-Rx is Chmcl Str8jckt’sthird Cleopatra release, the latest highlight in a relationship that confirms both the band’s status in the modern industrial firmament, and Cleopatra’s long, long-standing role at the forefront of the original industrial revolution - the label has championed the genre almost since its inception in the early 1990s, and overseen many of its most influential convolutions.
Outlaw Industrial Rock, however, is one of the most thrilling of them all. And IV-Rx is just what the doctor ordered.
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/chmclstr8jckt_ivrx
