August Burns Red recently issued the Guardians Sessions EP, which reimagined two songs from 2020’s Guardians album and tacked on a few other musical surprises, including a cover of System of a Down’s Chop Suey!.
Now the band has revisited an album from further in their past with Leveler: 10th Anniversary Edition, a re-recording of their 2011 fourth effort.
The new version features special guests, brand new electric guitar solos, alternate tunings and more, and to celebrate the effort, ABR have shared the re-recorded track Pangaea, now with a guitar solo from Periphery's Misha "Bulb" Mansoor. You can check it out below.
Said ABR guitarist JB Brubaker, “Pangaea has always been one of my favorite tracks on Leveler. It may be the most progressive song on the album so it felt like a natural fit to have Misha from Periphery perform on the track. He delivered quite possibly the most head-spinning guitar solo that we’ve ever had on an ABR song.”
Regarding the album, Brubaker continued, "Leveler is a record we've always been proud of, and we wanted to do something special for its ten-year anniversary. We've done some cool remix projects for previous albums when they've turned 10, but with Leveler, we decided to kick things up a notch. COVID has kept us off the road for such a long time that we found ourselves with a rare opportunity to take on this unique project.
“We dove into this record and dissected the songs, rewriting solos, changing the tunings, adding new textures and elements, and got a few of our friends to do some guest spots as well.
“Our longtime producers Carson Slovak and Grand McFarland handled the recording/mixing and helped us take Leveler to new sonic heights. I think this is the best-sounding ABR record we've ever made, and it's going to allow people to experience the record in a whole new way. I can't wait to share this with everyone."
Leveler: 10th Anniversary Edition will be available digitally May 21. It will also be self-released on ABR Records.
Additionally, ABR will perform Leveler in full, with an encore of songs from 2009's Constellations, during their next livestream on Saturday, May 22 at 8pm ET/5pm PT.
You can purchase tickets, as well as pre-order the album, here.
