As Flaming Wrekage’s brutal fourth album tickles your earholes, you know this is something special. …
Welcome to paradise and your first destination is Black Coast.
MORE: VOID OF VISION: Something Old, Something New // CHASE ATLANTIC: Pensive Is As Pensive Does: “The Harder Life Is, The Better I Think Our Music Will Become.” REVIEWS: CHASE ATLANTIC: Beauty In Death // ROB ZOMBIE: The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy // VOID OF VISION: Hyperdaze (Redux) // ERRA: Erra // STEPSON: Help Me, Help You // BELLE HAVEN: Time Changes Nothing // THE STRANGER: Kaleidoscope
So, sit back, relax and turn your speakers up as this is no ordinary paradise, in fact Paradise is the latest new single to be released from the five-piece UK nu-metal outfit Black Coast.
In case you are just discovering these hard hitters for the first time you should know that Black Coast currently have a handful of EP’s, Crows of the North, III Minds Vol.1 & 2, and a 2020 cover of Linkin Park’s A Place For My Head under their belt. The band have just added Paradise as the latest edition to their resume and the very first single to be released off their upcoming debut album due to be unleashed later this year.
Since forming as a band in 2016, Black Coast are already experimenting with their sound as heard in their new track that has a heavy lucid dream-like vibe still with the incorporation of vocalist Charlie Hewitt’s nu-metal screams. Guitarist Scott Pinnington chats about the band’s new direction and sound with the introduction of their first single Paradise, what is expected to be revealed on their upcoming album and he also dishes some behind the scenes information about the band.
“For me, the song itself is more like a transition of the old Black Coast to the new Black Coast. From my own personal feeling, it’s like a fresh page,” Scott says. “We weren’t bored of our songs, but we just felt like we didn’t really listen to that music anymore. A lot of us resorted back to listening to older bands, like I’m a big Alice In Chains fan, Joe [guitarist] is a big Limp Bizkit fan, and you know we’ve all got these individuals of these big 90’s and early 2000’s bands, so we decided to write what we really want,” turning to the original heavy scene kids for inspiration and the band members musical roots.
Ocean Grove was also dubbed as a new artist that really influenced Black Coast during the writing of their debut album, particularly with Ocean Grove’s 2017 album The Rhapsody Tapes. Scott says the record “blew us away,” impacting the band in a big way.
The new album that features Paradise was not full of smooth sailing during the writing and recording process. The band faced issues such as tracks not working as they had imagined. What’s more relatable to every artist or creative, Black Coast faced a period of that dreadful writers block.
“We just knew that we had to change something about the band, because we had been working hard and a lot of things hadn’t gone right for us, and we knew somewhere that something had to change, and obviously it was the music that was the main thing.”
Restructuring Black Coast’s new sound with inspiration from past artists such as Alice In Chains, Pantera, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Deftones, A Perfect Circle and Type O Negative, the feedback that the band has received from Paradise so far, is that they have managed to capture a new sound, “which is nice because we didn’t really intend to do that. We just wanted to write some really catchy songs basically, just songs that would be memorable,” says Scott.
With regards to the eleven track album coming out later this year, Scott shared an update on the album progress and what fans should expect to hear from the ‘new Black Coast’. “I can tell you that we’ve actually worked on the album… and the album is done! I can’t go into too much detail because every time I do I get shouted at by Charles,” he laughs. He describes the album as heavy but diverse with slight nod toward those original old school post hardcore and nu-metal acts.
We just knew that we had to change something about the band, because we had been working hard and a lot of things hadn’t gone right for us, and we knew somewhere that something had to change, and obviously it was the music that was the main thing
[ Scott Pinnington ]
“There’s something on there which should accommodate for most people who like grunge and nu-metal, we have literally left no song unturned on this album.”
The Black Coast boys worked alongside UK producer Sam Bloor, saying “we just went in with him [to the studio] and said that we want to write a masterpiece, and I think that’s what we’ve achieved.” Even though Paradise has been a successful release for the band, during album sessions they agreed to not just reproduce ten other tracks that sound the same or similar to Paradise. Diversity is a key message that is being emphasised in this work, Scott says, “we wanted to make sure that each song has it’s own individual style, and there’s a lot of styles that shine through on this album.”
You might ask, how does a nu-metal band solve writer’s block? Black Coast’s solution was inspired by producer Sam: make a cover. During production, Black Coast took a breather to release a cover of Linkin Park’s A Place for My Head. Scott says that at the time, the band “were getting a little stressed and frustrated with some bits and bobs of the songs” and the band came back with cover options to play. “We all sat down and listened to it [A Place For My Head] and the fact that we couldn’t really find anybody else who had done a cover of the song, we were like this could be the one,” as A Place For My Head isn’t usually the first track people think of from Hybrid Theory.
“I feel like it was a really great cover to do and it was fun as well, it did actually take us away from the stress of the album because we just had a weekend of just doing the cover and it was nice to do that for a change, and people enjoyed it”.
With this intimate opportunity to question Scott, it was 100% necessary to find out his ideal version of paradise, linking everything back to the band’s newly released single. The UK metalhead says that “my ideal version of paradise would probably be, right at this moment of time with everything that’s been going on, is just to meet up with some friends and just have a few beers, listen to some good music, and have a barbeque, and just normality really. I’m a pretty simple dude you know? Just to enjoy a pint, listen to some good music and see some friends, that’s pretty much a good paradise for me. So yeah, just chilling,” he laughs.
Black Coast are hitting the festival tour circuit overseas in 2021 and 2022, you can catch them at Your City festival, Burn It Down festival and Hammerfest over in the UK. With one single already released, Paradise, the Black Coast boys will be dropping another two singles shortly before unleashing their debut album later in 2021.
Paradise is available now.
