Held., a new band featuring members of The Sleeping and Coheed and Cambria, have announced their debut album GREY, out May 15th.
The trio consists of The Sleeping’s Douglas Robinson (vocals/guitar) and Sal Mignano (bass), along with Coheed drummer Josh Eppard. They’re joined by guest vocalist Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance) on their first single, “NEW YOU ANTHEM.”
Sound-wise the song falls into mathy post-hardcore. Robinson lays down the emo-tinged vocals — which will be familiar to fans of his now-defunct band The Sleeping — while the rhythm section of Mignano and Eppard keep a tight, driving interplay. Iero’s voice can be heard during the chorus, backing up Robinson’s hook.
“I wrote the idea for this song in my room,” Robinson revealed in a press release. “I was motivated to write something anthemic, not for the sake of being purely anthemic but more or less therapeutic for people who feel down all of the time. I feel this a lot in my life. It’s a heavy vibe I have to push through more times than not. I wanted to write something that encapsulates the feeling of any kind of love as survival.”
Regarding the collab, Iero added: “My Chemical Romance played a few shows with The Sleeping on the East Coast way back in the day, and I have always been a fan of Douglas’ voice and songwriting. Recently, when my friend Mike Dubin hit me up and said he was managing Douglas’ new project with Josh from Coheed on drums, another mutual friend, and that they were wondering if I’d be interested in singing on a song, I immediately said yes.”
GREY was recorded at the Animal Farm in Flemington, New Jersey, and produced and mixed by Jon Markson (Drug Church, The Story So Far). That was after the trio first convened for initial jams in Woodstock, New York, at Applehead studios — a locale with a shared history between the three musicians.
“It feels awfully serendipitous that our first time playing together was in that town, in a studio where we’d all crafted career defining albums with our previous projects,” Eppard said of those Woodstock sessions. “Personally, I felt the hands of the universe at play when Michael Birnbaum (longtime Coheed/The Sleeping producer) called me and said ‘Yo, Doug and Sal are coming through… wanna jam?’ To be honest I’ve gotten quite a few of those kinds of calls over the years. This time, I said yes.”
Pre-orders for the album are ongoing via MNRK Heavy. You can stream the video for “NEW YOU ANTHEM” and see the album art and tracklist below.
GREY Artwork:
GREY Tracklist:
01. DEFENDING THE EARTH
02. NEW YOU ANTHEM (FT. FRANK IERO)
03. CONSTANT TENSION
04. KNIFEPOINT (FT. HIGH VIS)
05. WAVES OF FIRE
06. GREY
07. I AND I AGAINST YOU ALL
08. THROUGH THE CRACKS
09. BROKEN SPACESUIT (DECAY AND SAND)
10. EMPTINESS: A SIDE EFFECT
You must be logged in to post a comment.