Highly-acclaimed alt-metal/heavy rock band The Clay People, who have taken many forms over the years experimenting with many styles and sounds, are back with the much-anticipated release of their new album Demon Hero and Other Extraordinary Phantasmagoric Anomalies & Fables on September 28.
eaturing 11 new songs, including “Colossus”, which is finally being released accompanied by visuals that can be seen below:
Lead Singer Dan Neet describes the new album as “capturing us at a creative peak that was forged from what was, at times, a tenuous, cathartic and finally unifying recording process that reinvigorated and focused the band.”
The riveting new release exposes lead singer Neet’s battles with depression, mania, fear, paranoia and addiction through his baritone bello and is backed by Guitarist Brian McGarvey’s’ slithering calculated leads and Drummer Dan Dinsmore’s high BPM thunder. The record captures the band at its best, navigating what Neet has previously described as “finding common ground” between electronic acts like The Chemical Brothers and the dark bravado of bands like Tool. Never afraid to take on controversial issues, Demon Hero calls out the corrupting influence of modern politics, the silver tongue of the modern demagogue, the ills of groupthink and the band’s experience with the music industry.
“Colossus’ was written a long time ago and was kind of pulled out of the vaults,” says Neet. “When we started doing this record, I don’t know if it was because of my anger or what have you, but I wanted power tunes on this album; I wanted heavy songs. That song was kind of a precursor to getting the ball rolling for myself. I definitely have to put out there that Brian McGarvey is the one that started this album. He is the one who gave it a face long before it had one, and of course, we were fortunate enough to work with Neil Kernon again – this is the fourth album we’ve worked on with him. He’s worked on every release we’ve done since the self-titled. Not to get too far ahead of myself, one thing that The Clay People do in the studio is that we say, ‘Don’t pre-think it. Just put everything down and we’ll sort it out later.’ That’s because we don’t know, and I don’t want someone not tracking an idea because they think someone won’t like it or it may not be right. It’s just how it happens. You sit back and listen to it and you realize what’s going to fit and what’s not going to fit. However, in the end, it takes one or two people to sit down with the mixes and the tracking and clean up or pull out or showcase or put a light on certain parts so that it doesn’t sound garbled or figure out what’s working and what’s not working.
With a song like ‘Colossus,’ which we demoed probably twice and recorded for an album once, so that’s three attempts on that particular song, but it just meant that it wasn’t what it was meant to be until now. It was strong enough to be kept in the vaults until it was finally ready to leave its infancy and grow up.” – Dan Neet
The band called in extended members of its musical family to contribute to Demon Hero. Chris Wyse of The Hollywood Vampires, Ace Frehley, The Cult and OWL, contributed bass to the band’s reinterpretation of fan favorite “Strange Day” and “Gen RX”. Walter Flakus of Stabbing Westwardand one-time Clay People member contributed keys. Wade Alin who added programming to the band’s self-titled release returns on Demon Heroas well. The album was recorded at OverIt Studios in Albany, NY.
