The band’s latest effort will feature 20 songs in a collection that vocalist Brent Smith says some may find, “controversial”.
Multi-platinum selling rock icons Shinedown will release their seventh album, Planet Zero, on April 22 via Atlantic Records. They have also revealed the title track!
Commenting on “Planet Zero”, vocalist Brent Smith states: “It honestly addresses everything that society has dealt with from a planetary platform, if you will — not just here in the U.S., but the whole world — what the last 18 months has been like, and, at least in our opinion, how we’ve gotta move forward.”
And on the album, Smith comments: “If we shut each other down and allow ourselves to be divided by the information we consume and the way we talk to each other, we lose our humanity. When you look outside of your phone, you’ll see there are so many people doing good things and trying to take care of each other. But we’re starting to see parts of society slip into an unknown. ‘Planet Zero’ was written for all of us. The fact is that we’re all here on this planet no matter what, so it’s time to actually move forward together with empathy, perseverance and strength. With that said… welcome to PLANET ZERO.”
Comparing this new track with their previous album, Attention Attention, we are getting a more stripped down approach. Still quite high in energy, Shinedown has gone back to basics so to speak, returning to the roots that made Shinedown great. Something Smith confirmed in an interview with 95.9 The Rat’s Carl Craft:
“We wanted to push everything to the front. And what I mean by that is we’ve proven that we can make these records that there’s a lot of musicianship involved in it, and we have layered our records over the years because we love music and we love sound and we try to make really cinematic records. So with that, you have a lot of instrumentation that is not just drums, bass, guitar and vocals — we use orchestras, we use a lot of synthesizers, we use a lot of techniques that… We don’t believe in… Don’t tie your hands up when you’re making a record. Make the record that you wanna make. And ultimately, though, what we wanted to do with this album was make it just as ferocious as the other records but not utilizing so much of some of the style that we’ve done in the past with layering and layering guitars, adding lots of synth beds, stacking the vocals.”
He continued: “I come from the Freddie Mercury school when it comes to vocals and layering and backgrounds and things of that nature because I try — I say ‘try’ — try to use my voice as an instrument. But this is about really less is more. So the majority of this record is authentically drums, bass, guitar. There are piano songs; there’s two really, really very intense-subject-matter piano songs that are gonna be in Shinedown seven. But we wanted to make a real rock record, we wanted to make a real record where we focus on just making sure that the band is being heard the way the band needs to be heard. So, not a lot of layering. It doesn’t mean it’s any less powerful; it’s just we’re not dealing with a lot of stacks. We’re just putting things left to right stereo, pushing everything to the front. The vocals aren’t layered a ton — not a lot of effects on the vocals, so not a lot of delays and reverbs and things like that. A lot of the vocals on the record are dry and kind of right up in your face.”
Planet Zero will feature a whopping 20 songs and tackle tough topics that we have all been grappling with. “Listen, the record… We’re talking about things that we’ve never talked about before,” Smith reveals. “We’re opening up the conversation into different subject matters that Shinedown has never addressed. We have the full support of our label, our management and hopefully our fanbase, whether they’ve been there from day one or they’re just kind of finding out who we are. But it’s a record that I think some people will consider controversial, I think some people will consider to be very provocative, especially for Shinedown, but it’s also something that we feel that it is very important and that it is necessary… Don’t get me wrong either — there’s a lot of triumph on this record, but there’s also a lot of having to take a step back and go, ‘What’s really going on? And how do we stop it from happening if it’s going to be something negative on the human race as a whole?’ Our society, the way that we live with one another, we share this planet with a lot of different organisms and creatures. It’s not just about us. It’s important that everybody really takes a step back and doesn’t always make it about them. We have to work together — like, all of us; we’ve really gotta start working together with each other and really creating a positive change forward for not only society but also for this beautiful planet that we’ve been given.”
Track listing:
Shinedown are extremely busy in 2022! In addition to the album announcement, the band’s first leg of their 2022 tour kicks off tonight!
Shinedown tour dates:
January 26 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield ^
January 28 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern ^
January 29 – Valley Center, CA @ Harrah’s Resort Southern California ^
January 30 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Federal Theatre ^
February 1 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom ^
February 2 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex ^
February 4 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas ^
February 5 – Reno, NV @ Grand Sierra Resort & Casino ^
February 7 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre ^
February 8 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall ^
April 1 – Spokane, WA @ Spokane Arena #
April 2 – Boise, ID @ ExtraMile Arena #
April 4 – Billings, MT @ First Interstate Arena #
April 6 – Fargo, ND @ FARGODOME #
April 8 – Green Bay, WI @ Resch Center #
April 9 – Peoria, IL @ Peoria Civic Center #
April 11 – Sioux Falls, SD @ Denny Sanford Premier Center #
April 12 – Des Moines, IA @ Wells Fargo Arena #
April 14 – Toledo, OH @ Huntington Center #
April 15 – Hershey, PA @ GIANT Center #
April 16 – Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun #
April 18 – Portland, ME @ Cross Insurance Arena #
April 20 – Baltimore, MD @ Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena #
April 22 – Charleston, WV @ Charleston Coliseum #
April 23 – Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center #
April 24 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena #
April 26 – Evansville, IN @ Ford Center #
April 28 – Wichita, KS @ INTRUST Bank Arena #
April 29 – Little Rock, AR @ Simmons Bank Arena #
April 30 – Birmingham, AL @ Legacy Arena #
May 3 – Greensboro, NC @ Greensboro Coliseum #
May 4 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena #
May 6 – Greenville, SC @ Bon Secours Wellness Arena #
May 7 – Knoxville, TN @ Thompson-Boling Arena #
May 21 – Daytona Beach, FL @ Welcome To Rockville
June 3 – Nuremberg, Germany @ Rock im Park
June 5 – Nuremberg, Germany @ Rock am Ring
June 7 – Budapest, Hungary @ Groupama Aréna +
June 9 – Hamburg, Germany @ edel-optics.de Arena
June 11 – Donington, UK @ Download Festival
June 13 – Belfast, UK @ Ormeau Park +
June 16 – Utrecht, Netherlands @ Tivoli Vredenburg
June 17 – Clisson, France @ Hellfest
June 18 – Dessel, Belgium @ Graspop Metal Meeting
July 14 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee ^
July 19 – Quebec, QC @ Centre Videotron *^
July 20 – Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia *^
July 22 – Toronto, ON @ History *^
July 23 – Windsor, ON @ The Colosseum at Caesars Windsor *^
July 26 – Winnipeg, MB @ Burton Cummings Theatre *^
July 27 – Moose Jaw, SK @ Mosaic Place *^
July 29 – Saskatoon, SK @ TCU Place *^
July 30 – Calgary, AB @ Grey Eagle Resort & Casino *^
July 31 – Edmonton, AB @ Convention Centre *^
August 2 – Penticton, BC @ South Okanagan Event Centre *^
August 3 – Abbotsford, BC @ Abbotsford Centre *^
Key:
* with Pop Evil
^ with Ayron Jones
# with The Pretty Reckless and Diamante
+ with Iron Maiden
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