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Bayside’s New Album ‘Cult’ Released This Feb

By Darren Hassan

Posted on January 15, 2014

With their trademark American Punk Rock sound and embracing their roots as strongly as ever, New York band Bayside announce their sixth studio album ‘CULT’, to be released February 21

With their trademark American Punk Rock sound and embracing their roots as strongly as ever, New York band Bayside announce their sixth studio album ‘CULT’, to be released February 21 via Hopeless/Unified (AU/NZ).

Borne from an emotionally tumultuous year which saw the band experience the extremes of both tragedy and joy, ‘CULT’ is a very personal record for Bayside: the sound of a band re-energised and raring to go. “The year that we spent making this record was both the most difficult and most exciting time of my life,” Anthony Raneri recalls. “I lost my grandfather, stepfather and stepbrother in a four month span during the making of this record. As a counterbalance, I also got married, had my first child, and built my first home. The whole year was an example of how hard and wonderful life can be, and how quickly your world can change.”

While the events that unfolded in their personal lives could have tainted the album with melancholia, ‘CULT’ is anything but melancholic. From the anthemic opening track ‘Big Cheese’ to the introspective ‘Something’s Wrong’, ‘CULT’ displays is the work of a band at its peak. With a frenetic and breakneck punk pace, the album sears with Jack O’Shea’s guitar work, Nick Ghanbarian’s thumping bass lines and Chris Guglielmo’s muscular drumming, all elements ultimately anchored by Raneri’s unique vocals. “We worked incredibly hard on this record,” he explains. “We wrote and re-wrote songs over and over. All four of us lost a lot of sleep over every decision that we made on this record. This is really our opus.”

Forming in 2000 in Queens, New York, the breadth of the band’s history has culminated in ‘CULT’. Anthony summarises: “CULT, in a way, is the Bayside discography without using any old songs. To me, it is every characteristic of every Bayside record all mashed into one… The earnestness of ‘Sirens’, the riskiness and creativity of our self titled record and ‘Walking Wounded’, the quirkiness of ‘Shudder’ and the experienced solid song-writing and aggression of ‘Killing Time’… For years, we haven’t tried to reinvent ourselves or define ourselves. All that we try to do is get better at being Bayside.”

Bayside fans can pre-order ‘CULT’ for only $9.99 on iTunes between Jan 17-Jan 23. The digital album is due for release on February 18, 2014. Bayside’s searing first single from ‘CULT’, ‘Pigsty’ is available on iTunes now.