Innovative Texan prog rockers Polyphia are mapping out their fifth studio album, which they intend to continue recording throughout the coming months. According to the group’s acclaimed guitarist Tim Henson, this new effort will be “heavy”, as he recently told Guitar World, “That’s exciting for us, and I think last year was really eye-opening for us in terms of how we should start composing for the live performance.”
He further went on to say:
“[There’s] lots of eight-string. We’re playing baritones and stuff, too. We’re just making new guitars that don’t exist for the sole purpose of writing something really, really cool with it, so that if you want to learn it, you’re gonna have no choice but to buy that guitar! [laughs] It’s the ‘Playing God‘ treatment, right?”
Speaking further on what to expect from the album, he added:
“Remember That You Will Die was very much a showcase of range for us where we’ve got songs like ‘ABC‘, which is a J-pop song, and then songs like ‘Bloodbath‘ with Chino [Moreno, of Deftones, etc.], where it’s super-heavy, and songs like ‘Playing God‘ where it’s nylon-strings, and ‘The Audacity‘, which is crazy jazz. For this record, rather than being all over the place, [we’re] pinpointing the sound and really going deeper into it, rather than wider.”
As is tradition, Polyphia also won’t be alone on this new offering, having enlisted System Of A Down vocalist Serj Tankian for a guest appearance. On top of that, they’ve also once again paired up with Japanese metal superstars BABYMETAL, this time trading a pair of new collaborations for each other’s respective upcoming records. Henson said of that:
“We have one with Serj [Tankian] from System Of A Down and we just finished a second BABYMETAL collab – that’s for their record, though, and we’re working on one to send them for our record. So hopefully we’ll make that one come to fruition.”
Back in June of last year, Tankian publicly spoke of his admiration for Polyphia. In fact, it seems his fandom of the band was such that Polyphia will also be joining up with System Of A Down across all of their upcoming North American shows this summer:
With Korn & Wisp:
08/27 New York City, NY – Metlife Stadium
08/28 New York City, NY – Metlife Stadium
With Avenged Sevenfold & Wisp:
08/31 Chicago, IL – Soldier Field
09/01 Chicago, IL – Soldier Field
With Deftones & Wisp:
09/03 Toronto, ON – Rogers Stadium
09/05 Toronto, ON – Rogers Stadium
