New Everything From Becoming The Archetype

Armed with what Metal Hammer called “massive songs, massive ideas and a massive array of instruments,” the Atlanta, Georgia outfit has forged a cottage industry out of defying musical expectations, pushing heavy music to its breaking point with horns, Middle Eastern sitar, choirs of sopranos and bone-crushingly  heavy riffage. Suffice it to say – with four full-length albums under their belt, the now veteran act  have truly mastered the art of throwing curveballs.

Now, with the metal world on the lookout for another backdoor slider, BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE are winding up with their best pitch yet – a fastball right down the heart of the plate in the form of I AM.

The band’s fifth full-length is baffling first and foremost because it’s not meant to be baffling. As guitarist, mastermind and band nucleus Seth Hecox explains, the album is less about reinventing heavy music than it is reinventing BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE. That’s not to say listeners won’t find the band doing its usual mind-warping and genre-bending, but the point of this album wasn’t to transcend the artform of metal music, it was to master it.

“I AM is 100% head banging riffs,” Hecox says. “Gone are the sitars and horns of Celestial Completion. Instead, we’ve crafted an album full of the heaviest and most technical songs we’ve ever written.”

But hearing is believing, and thus Hecox and the ARCHETYPE boys are inviting fans to sample the new track “The Time Bender.” The catch? Listeners will have to settle for only a taste at first, but can unlock the remainder of the song by spreading the word for others to listen.

Listen to help unlock ‘The Time Bender’:

“’The Time Bender’ is a microcosm of the new album because it displays elements of what BTA has done in the past as well as elements of what the BTA sound is becoming,” says Hecox. “In that sense, it’s a perfect bridge between people’s past enjoyment of BTA’s catalog and people’s excitement over the new material. We’ve been playing the song live this whole summer so lots of ears have already heard a simplified version of this song and feedback has been spectacular. It’s encouraging to know that so many people stand behind what we do and willingly follow us in each step of our musical evolution.”

I AM available for preorder now:

Recorded with producer Shane Frisby (BURY YOUR DEAD, THE GHOST INSIDE), I AM, as the title suggests, is also a statement of an album that puts a new stamp on who BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE is and what it stands for following an inter-band shakeup – one that cleared the path for Hecox to assemble a true dream team of musicians around him.

After seven years and four acclaimed albums with longtime label Solid State Records, BTA is in the unique situation of being an accomplished veteran band with a roster comprised largely of young, hungry, wildly talented musicians poised for their first real test on the national front. It’s a fact that isn’t lost on the band who are embracing this perceived new lease on life as an opportunity to both reinvigorate the band’s wide fan base and tap into a huge cross-section of metal fans who previously might have balked at BTA’s unbridled, manic creativity.

I AM Track Listing:

1) The Ocean Walker

2) The Time Bender

3) The Eyes of the Storm

4) The Sky Bearer

5) The Machine Killer

6) The War Ender

7) The Weapon Breaker

8) The Planet Maker

9) The Sun Eater