Vincent Bennett [vocals], Kevin Boutot [drums], Devin Shidaker [guitar], Griffin Landa [bass], and Tom “The Hammer” Smith, Jr. [guitar] — have shared the video for “One Thousand Painful Stings”. The song, which features Spiritbox singer Courtney LaPlante, appears on the band’s eighth full-length album “Slow Decay”, out now through Rise Records. THE ACACIA STRAIN has also announced a European Tour supporting Aborted in 2021.
In lieu of an actual live show, the clip is a socially distanced sign of the times — featuring the band members performing in fuzzy onesies, substituting pet cats for instruments and Swiffers for mic stands, LaPlante’s living room mosh, and much more. It’s truly a hilarious (and thoroughly metal) way to cap off what has been quite a tumultuous year.
“Having a record come out during a pandemic is hard,” says Bennett, who also directed the video. “No touring, no playing the new songs, no nothing. All of us live far away from one another, so we cannot do a cool livestream, either. We couldn’t even get together to make a music video, so we did this! Stay safe, stay sane, and stay away from each other!”
Slow Decay is a beast of a record. The songs were released as seven inch and digital single drops between February 28 and June 12, along with two additional tracks, in what can only be deemed a groundbreaking and thrilling rollout.
“Stunning and suffocating… a serious contender for album of the year.” – Revolver
“A genuinely inventive take on metallic hardcore without abandoning the traits that longtime Acacia Strain fans know and love, and for a band nearly 20 years into their career, that’s a pretty impressive feat.” — Brooklyn Vegan
“Dynamite reminders of why The Acacia Strain are so great.” — Metal Sucks
“The band furthers its maturation into a more sophisticated realm of heavy music.” — Exclaim!
“Some of the finest The Acacia Strain material to date.” — Blabbermouth
“It is a massive, lumbering, unstoppable force of doom-soaked beatdown the likes of which could only have been concocted by twenty-year veterans in the year 2020.” — Heavy Blog Is Heavy
“At times Slow Decay feels like a brick stuck on spin cycle, rattling around the drum until it rips itself apart. That’s the point, though.” — Upset
“Album Number 10 is also firmly anchored in the heart of deathcore, but at the same time has a very strong doom impact.” — Metal Hammer
Hell Over Europe 4 with ABORTED, The Acacia Strain, Benighted and Fleddy Melculy.
24/09/2021 Dynamo – Eindhoven. NL
25/09/2021 De Kreun – Kortrijk BE
26/09/2021 MS Connexion Complex – Mannheim DE
28/09/2021 TivoliVredenburg – Utrecht, NL
29/09/2021 The Dome – London, UK
30/09/2021 Trabendo – Paris FR
01/10/2021 Musadeath Festival Vallet – Nantes, FR
02/10/2021 John Lennon – Limoges, FR
03/10/2021 Le Rex – Toulouse, FR
05/10/2021 Totem – Pamplona, SP
06/10/2021 Hard Club – Porto, PT
07/10/2021 RCA Club – Lisbon, PT
08/10/2021 Shoko – Madrid, SP
09/10/2021 Salamandra – Barcelona, SP
10/10/2021 CCO Villeurbanne – Lyon, FR
11/10/2021 Kiff – Aarau, CH
12/10/2021 Slaughter Club – Milano, IT
13/10/2021 Orto Bar – Ljubljana, SL
14/10/2021 Barba Negra – Budapest, HU
15/10/2021 Szene – Vienna, AT
16/10/2021 Feierwerk – Munich, DE
17/10/2021 Meet factory – Prague, CZ
18/10/2021 Randal club – Bratislava, SK
20/10/2021 Zbau – Nuremberg, DE
21/10/2021 Kulttempel – Oberhausen, DE
Hell Over Europe 4 with ABORTED, The Acacia Strain, Hideous Divinity and Cult of Lilith
23/10/2021 Train – Aarhus, DK
24/10/2021 Slaktkyrkan – Stockholm, SE
25/10/2021 Valand – Gothenburg, SE
26/10/2021 Bla – Oslo, NO
27/10/2021 Amager Bio – Copenhagen, DK
28/10/2021 Gruenspan – Hamburg, DE
29/10/2021 Werk2 – Leipzig, DE
30/10/2021 Columbia – Theater Berlin, DE
31/10/2021 Metropool – Hengelo, NL
