Rising Insane: Putting Out The Wildfires In Life

Whenever you read about wildfires in the news, it is always haunting to see the images and videos of just how powerful nature can be as we watch with awe at the bright orange flames that can destroy so many homes and natural environments. However, the same can be said for humanity. Wherever we look, there seem to be wars, hatred, and misery in the world. In short, humanity seems to have lost empathy for each other. This is why German metalcore band RISING INSANE have named their new album Wildfires. 

It is the fourth album to be released by the band, and it looks at the consequences of what happens when humans reject empathy. The cover is a minimalistic one and shows a young woman with light hitting her face.

“We liked the minimalistic style of just one person representing all these wildfires as we didn’t want the obvious ‘world on fire’ cover. I feel like a lot is going on in the world right now, and it’s like we’re surrounded,” vocalist Aaron Steineker explains when we sit down to chat with him on his lunch break at work. However, the album isn’t all doom and gloom. Instead, there is an encouraging message at the heart of the album: one of community and solidarity.

Sonically, the album sees the band take a much more diverse approach to their sound. “When we first started writing songs for this album, we felt like we were copying our first three albums. When we were on tour, we found that there was a new energy when playing the more experimental songs rather than our usual metalcore songs, so we wanted to get that energy into our songs. We tried to get inspirations from happier bands.”

He elaborates by saying that because there are so many new metalcore bands in the scene, RISING INSANE want to try and be a little different. But they also didn’t want the change to alienate their fans who have grown to love the band over time, which has happened to a lot of musicians throughout the entire music scene. “We wanted to stick to our roots. We have a very good bond with our fans, and I knew that we couldn’t change the style and focus on electronic metal.”

In fact, Wildfires is a brilliant example of a band changing their sound as it subtly introduces new elements into the band’s signature sound. “We still have songs on the album that sticks to the old sound, but for a time, we considered creating a double album called Dark Blue, and the ‘Dark’ side would have our typical metalcore songs and the ‘Blue’ side would have all the experimental songs. But we distinguished that idea very quickly, although the mixture of old and new sounding songs stayed. For Wildfires, I think we got an even balance.”

When trying to decide the track list for the album, Steineker explains that RISING INSANE have a unique way of deciding which songs made it onto the album. “We mostly just look at the track list of all the songs that we wrote – which are unnamed at this point in the writing process – and we take the best ten or twelve, or – in the case of Wildfires – best eleven, and we look at them when we drive to a show, which can take three, four, five, or even eight hours. As we listen, we take notes on what songs will be the opener of the album. Afterwards, we put all our notes together and we listen to the order that we just made up. Then we discuss what to change about the order.”

He adds that the band are happy with the track list for Wildfires, and says that the closing title track gives a hint about RISING INSANE‘s future. “I love writing happy, poppy songs, but there is still a lot of brutal metalcore as well. Also, the song before Wildfires, which is a ballad called The Door, felt like the right way to introduce the final heavy song. Furthermore, Counting Regrets, which is the interlude halfway through the album, is like taking a deep breath in between the harshness.”

When it comes to the future of RISING INSANE, there is a huge gap between what Steineker would like the band to do and what they can do because they all work long jobs, so there isn’t enough time to write a double album. Furthermore, he adds that streaming services focus more on singles instead of complete albums. With the rise of artificial intelligence creating metalcore music, it is going to be so much harder for bands to rise above the noise.

But RISING INSANE are determined to continue on. Although they work long weeks before driving to play two shows over the weekend, the memories they all make and the communities they build make the work-life-band balance worth it. The band like to travel the globe, so they haven’t counted out any international shows, although they don’t have any plans right now. But whatever the future holds for RISING INSANE, their fans will always be behind them, supporting them through thick and thin. Whilst the world can seem like a dark and scary place at times and humanity can seem bleak, there are still moments of happiness throughout life. Music has the ability to say what we want but don’t have the words to say. Although there seem to be endless wildfires throughout life, RISING INSANE have proved that there is at least one way to deal with the world, and that way is music and the communities that we can build.

Wildfires is out now via Long Branch Records.

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