The Damned Things appeared to have started off 2018 as Every Time I Die vocalist Keith Buckley, Shiner bassist Josh Newton, Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, Volbeat guitarist Rob Caggiano and Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley. The band teased some live shows and maybe a new record, and everything seemed to be in order. Then we found out that Caggiano quit, and hadn't been in the band in for a little while now.
Now The Damned things have officially unveiled their lineup to be Ian, Trohman, Hurley, Buckley and Alkaline Trio bassist Dan Andriano. We noted recent pictures of the band also seemed to be missing Newton, which now makes sense given that he's also left the band.
The Damned Things will release their first new material in seven years titled High Crimes, due out April 26 via Nuclear Blast. Trohman recently told Kerrang! that High Crimes was originally supposed to be an EP, but evolved into a whole record.
"I originally wanted to open the record with this song called 'Storm Charmer' because it was really slow and ominous, which is probably a bad idea. [Laughs] I think I love 'Cells' — that is one of my favorite songs on the record. 'Cells', 'Omen' and 'Carry A Brick' are some of my favorites.
"Honestly, I've been sitting with the demos for nearly two years, and I still haven't got sick of any of it. I don't listen to it in a self-serving way. I'll listen to them and think, 'When am I going to hate them?' And every time I listen to them, I really like all these songs. It's the first time I've listened to a record and found there's not a lot I would change. With making anything, I could tweak it forever, but I think with this one, the mentality was just: go in, write these songs, and when they're done, they're done. Don't overthink anything. Hopefully, by approaching it in a 'Let's make them sound really cool and not tweak them forever' stance, then they would be the rawest possible version. I though the last record was definitely a little flippant in production, and I just wanted to pull back on that."
The band is scheduled to play Welcome To Rockville on May 4 in Jacksonville, FL, where you'll presumably hear some of these sweet, sweet new jams.
Stay tuned.
