Fit For A King: The Long And Emotional Road
Metalcore heavyweights FIT FOR A KING are back with a bang in the form of new album The Hell We Create. This comes after their 2020 record The Path, but it’s clear to say a lot of things have happened to the band since then. This release follows some really sad and emotional themes based around what front man Ryan Kirby and his family have had to endure in the past couple of years, and he explained this all to Distorted Sound.
During 2020, Kirby developed extreme depression and anxiety, whilst his wife suffered a stroke which left her with health complications. This is a huge weight to have to bear in itself, but the couple also adopted their children who have suffered a large amount of trauma. Kirby explained that this album is very personal to him and follows his journey through these difficult times, exploring emotions he once only knew about rather than having experienced.
“I’ve heard fans opening up about mental health to me but I didn’t truly know what people had been through when they have a panic attack or suffered extreme depression and anxiety. Being able to experience it for myself really opened my eyes to how awful it really is. Until you’ve experienced it it’s hard to describe to somebody what it’s like to be depressed or live in constant anxiety. It made it a lot easier to understand at least to a degree what a lot of fans have been through.”
There’s hope that fans that have been through similar experiences to the frontman will be able to find solace within the lyrics and feel truly heard. “Also with my wife almost dying, we’re still having lots of trouble with medical things; she’s about to have her third brain surgery next month. There are a lot of fans who have lost loved ones and fortunately I still haven’t lost a loved one outside of my grandpa when I was ten so I didn’t truly feel it. I got a one percent taste of what losing a loved one could be like. Every time she goes to have another surgery I have to face this reality that she might not wake up, and just even knowing what that feels like can help me empathise a lot more and help me write lyrics that can sympathise with people who have suffered immense loss.” It is clear this album is raw and written straight from the heart; with such personal experiences being shared this release is sure to be a stand out one for FIT FOR A KING.
Musically the tracks also represent the messages Kirby is trying to get across. “This album is a lot more emotional than The Path musically and lyrically. I think there is also more variation; there are more dynamics to it with the singing and the screaming. There are a lot more really soft emotional singing parts but then when we go heavy its way heavier gutturals. So I think we tried to make the record just dynamic but also as emotional as possible.”
Ryan Kirby explained that this album is a call out to everyone to ask for help when they’re going through difficult times, even if they’re scared. There’s a big stigma in society at the moment that we need to look after ourselves and shouldn’t bother other people with our issues. Kirby mentions that this only makes things worse. “For me, my biggest issue was I had been able to handle things my whole life and I thought I had been through really stressful times. I had been through stress but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. I made the mistake of thinking that meant I could handle all stress when I just hadn’t been stressed hard enough. I almost see it as you have this tank that’s filling up with stress that lowers and rises until one day it just overflows and you just can’t handle it anymore. I was always able to keep things in the comfortable range and I made the mistake of thinking that I could just always do that. So when things were overflowing I just thought ‘you’re not trying hard enough, just work harder. You’ve always been able to do this in the past’. It prevents you from asking for help because you think it’s just another time you have to deal with it and bury it. Eventually it gets to a point where you can’t bury it anymore. For some people that moment becomes too overwhelming and they never get the chance to ask for help.” Sometimes it’s hard to admit to ourselves that we need help. By asking for help you haven’t failed and you’re no less strong as a person. As a society we need to be there to support each other through these hardships.
The songs on this album clearly have strong meanings, but there may be a couple of other things fans of FIT FOR A KING might not have expected. “I think the fans will be surprised by Reaching Out because we don’t do very many ballads; it’s another super emotional song. We put out End, but outside of that our singles weren’t the most emotional songs. Like Falling Through The Sky is just about struggling with anxiety which is something a lot of people do. With our other songs on the album is gets so much deeper and more emotional than the singles and I think as people dive into the record they’re going to be like, damn this is a super personal record.”
The Hell We Create is out now via Solid State Records.
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