The Amity Affliction have checked in with a final advance single from their ninth studio album “House Of Cards” (due out April 24th.) Below you can take in “Heaven Sent“, the third preview of their first album since parting ways with bassist/vocalist Ahren Stringer. Vocalist Joel Birch elaborated on this song, which like the album itself, channels the emotions tied to a traumatic childhood:
“This is one of the darker songs on the album, the first line references one of a handful of memories I have from when I was really young and my stepfather still smoked. He put his cigarette out on my arm at a party and then played it off as an accident. My mother was busy getting drunk and brushed it off and told me to keep it moving, basically.
The rest of the song is a snapshot of my home life in some ways and the way the abuse was cyclical in nature and always prefaced by or followed by ‘I love you,’ which obviously creates some strange and unhealthy ways for a young person to understand their relationship to a parent.”
The Amity Affliction have since recruited Jonny Reeves of Kingdom Of Giants to handle the bass and vocal duties, with “House Of Cards” being his first studio album holding down that role with the group. However, while Stringer and The Amity Affliction‘s split was not an amicable one, it would appear that financial troubles keep the two parties bound together, for now at least.
This week will see The Amity Affliction and August Burns Red launch their new co-headlining North American tour. Boundaries, HEAVENSGATE and Dreamwake will be opening that run.
With Dreamwake:
04/10 Worcester, MA – The Palladium
04/11 New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall
With HEAVENSGATE:
04/12 Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
04/14 Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore
04/15 Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
04/16 Orlando, FL – House of Blues
04/18 New Orleans, LA – The Fillmore
04/19 Dallas, TX – The Bomb Factory
04/21 Houston, TX – House of Blues
04/22 San Antonio, TX – Vibes Event Center (Outdoors)
04/24 Phoenix, AZ – The Marquee
04/25 San Diego, CA – Soma
04/26 Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
04/28 Sacramento, CA – Channel 24
04/29 Garden City, ID – Revolution Concert House
05/01 Salt Lake City, UT – The Union Event Center
05/02 Denver, CO – The Fillmore
05/03 Omaha, NE – The Astro Theater
05/05 Minneapolis, MN – The Fillmore
05/06 Milwaukee, WI – The Rave
05/08 Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
05/09 Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
05/10 Toronto, ON – History
05/12 Montreal, QC – Mtelus
05/13 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
05/15 Baltimore, MD – Nevermore Hall
05/16 Columbus, OH – Sonic Temple (August Burns Red & The Amity Affliction only)
05/17 Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore
