Michigan's Imminent Sonic Destruction are self-releasing their new album, Recurring Themes, today, and we've got the full stream of the album for you today as part of a new series called "Unsigned Spotlight."
Led by guitarist and vocalist Tony Piccoli, the band combine a heavy, technical groove with progressive flourishes that should make a broad range of metalheads happy. Recurring Themes was also produced by Roy Z, who has manned the controls for rock heavyweights like Sepultura, Sebastian Bach and Judas Priest, to name a few.
Stream the full album below, and while you're listening, check out this brief interview with I.S.D.'s Tony Piccoli.
How did you go about assembling the band's lineup?
Our band was formed by a mutual friend, Koggie, who eventually became our manager. I wrote the majority of the songs, but had no one else to play them with. Koggie knew all of us separately, and asked all of us if we'd be interested in doing this, and clearly we were. Basically, the songs brought us all together, and after one time playing together we all knew this was different. We would all hang out together even if we didn't have a band.
How long have you been working on the songs for the new album?
The album took just shy of two years to complete. The songs have been carefully crafted as far back as 2003 in some cases. My demos have been around that long for some of these songs. Some others were worked out just before heading into the recording studio. And some ideas were brought to the band and worked on as a group over the past 2 years.
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Talk about the gear you used on Recurring Themes.
We used Rivera Knucklehead amplifiers, and American Made Fender Stratocasters, with the humbucker at the bridge. Tony used a Morley wah pedal. Bryan (bass) played a Tobias Killer B5 bass through David Eden amps and cabs.
What did Roy Z bring to table for this album?
Professionalism, and confidence. Roy was very much into our music as it was, but he brought out the best performance out in all of us, while keeping a relaxed atmosphere. He knew exactly what to say, and when to say it. Roy is a highly sought after producer for a reason, the guy knows what he's doing. Also, he gave us a different feeling as a band. Roy's confidence in what we were doing gave us all a sense of purpose, and a drive to really make this the best product we could. I think that attitude has continued ever since we first met him.
Is there a producer you'd ideally be able to work with on a future album?
We'd love to work with Roy again, no doubt about it. Another album with him would be a different experience, based on the level of comfort we would have from day one with working with him. We'd love to employ the things we learned this time around, and raise the bar for ourselves with Roy at the helm. I would also love to work with Devin Townsend at some point. It would be great to see what he could do with our songs.
What's next for I.S.D.? Where do you hope the band goes from here?
From here, we get label representation and start touring. We're trying not to have too many preconceived notions about what will come next. We have a grand plan, but the steps along the way have always come rather unexpectedly to this point, and we're enjoying that. So, we hope to go forward. Keep an open mind, and never compromise the music. We play what we love, and we are excited to see where that will take us.
