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UNEARTH Release Eighth Studio Album ‘The Wretched; The Ruinous’
May 5th, 2023

Boston, Massachusetts-based metalcore band Unearth issued eighth full-length studio album The Wretched; The Ruinous on May 5th, 2023 through Century Media Records.

Tracks on the effort were written by guitarist Buz McGrath. “Buz took the entire pandemic to write these songs,” commented frontman Trevor Phipps. “He pushed himself to get out of his comfort zone and explore what Unearth is, both past and present. Buz adding these new elements and killer song structures inspired me to be more diverse vocally. The Wretched; The Ruinous is still Unearth, but it’s also the most dynamic record we’ve ever done.”

The Wretched; The Ruinous was produced by Fit For An Autopsy guitarist Will Putney, who produced previous outing Extinction(s). “There’s certain songs where you can really hear the band’s hardcore roots,” explained Phipps. “The track ‘Dawn Of The Militant’ is a true mix of metal and heavy hardcore, that to me define what the term ‘metalcore’ truly is. For the bulk of this record though, the metal, aggression, and technicality are reminiscent of our Watchers Of Rule (2014) album. All of the ingredients of Unearth are present on these songs, but the band continues to explore new territories as writers and players.”

The Wretched; The Ruinous marks the first Unearth album to be recorded without guitarist Ken Susi, who mutually parted with the band in 2022. “It simply came time for Unearth and Ken to take a break from working together,” Phipps said. “He’ll always be a large part of the story of this band, and we wish him the best on all of his endeavours.”

Phipps wrote lyrics, naturally. “Coming out of the pandemic I found myself struggling to find my zone of creativity with writing, but I pushed through, and once I found it things caught fire,” he said.

“Lyrically, it’s a warning shot record,” Phipps continued. “I’ve spoken about the decline of our environment by mankind’s hand dating back to our first record in 2001, and I’ve continued to write about the environmental crisis throughout our entire career. We are now at a tipping point with Mother Nature and our place on this planet, and I had to devote the entirety of this album to what is happening around us. This album is a collection of stories of what is happening, and what is to come, if we do not make monstrous changes to how we treat our only home.”

“The Wretched; The Ruinous is about the eight billion people on this planet. We’ve created a man-made mass extinction event and have been too slow to correct our faults. Extreme weather, drought, famine, disease, erosion of land, culture wars, civil wars, wars for natural resources, and the displacement of billions of people, is all a current reality. This isn’t a future problem; it is a now problem and I take this record to talk about it. As a species we are very quickly turning our once Garden Of Eden into our future hellscape.”

“It’s not all devastation and gloom though. On the track ‘Call Of Existence’ I talk about how we can turn this around with swift, drastic changes to our emissions and consumption of natural resources. There is a responsible way forward that will benefit all life on our planet, and we have to embrace and act on that responsibility now.”

Cover artwork was designed by Alex Goulet.

The track listing is as follows:

01. ‘The Wretched; The Ruinous’
02. ‘Cremation Of The Living’
03. ‘Eradicator’
04. ‘Mother Betrayal’
05. ‘Invictus’
06. ‘Call Of Existence’
07. ‘Dawn Of The Militant’
08. ‘Aniara’
09. ‘Into The Abyss’
10. ‘Broken Arrow’
11. ‘Theaters Of War’

Unearth’s line-up is as follows:

Trevor Phipps (vocals)
Buz McGrath (guitars)
Chris O’Toole (bass)
Nick Pierce (drums)

Music videos were released for the title track and the songs ‘Mother Betrayal’, ‘Into The Abyss’, ‘Dawn Of The Militant’ and ‘Eradicator’. All five clips can be viewed below.

Seventh studio record Extinction(s) was released in November 2018 via Century Media.

Promotional photograph by Ben Alexis.