Stray From The Path: Ahead Of The Curve
STRAY FROM THE PATH have continued to set the world of hardcore ablaze throughout their storied tenure with their frenetic energy and lack of faith in humanity and law enforcement. Their latest instalment entitled Euthanasia is by far their most aggressive and scathing yet.
“It’s a record that was written in a very dark time so it’s got a lot of deep messages and a dark tone,” explains guitarist Thomas Williams. “The first thing you hear on the record is the super scary sound of Needful Things and that was the first thing we wrote and we just kind of ran with it. It is just evil and kind of sets the pace for the rest of the record. Me and Craig [Reynolds, drums] write the majority of the music and being in different countries and not being able to see each other was definitely challenging but at the end of the day we have still managed to make our best album yet. We’ve been selling the record and vinyl out on tour and the feedback has been great, people are loving it. We never really sit down and say ‘right, this record is going to sound like this’, it all comes out naturally. I’m excited how it came out and I think sonically it is something that people haven’t heard from STRAY FROM THE PATH before.”
Inspiration can strike at any moment and Thomas seems to be the kind of creative force that could write all day, every day. “We’re always writing. Me and Craig will be soundchecking and Craig will just start playing a beat, I’ll join in and we don’t even say anything, we just give each other this funny, side eye kind of look and start recording it. If you put me and Craig in a room we could probably write you a record in a day, we are just stocked full of ideas. Even though we couldn’t see each other through the pandemic we just have this amazing chemistry which really takes us to another level.”
Due to their touring schedule suddenly disintegrating in front of their eyes STRAY FROM THE PATH had to find alternative sources of income in order to keep things running smoothly. Both Tom and UK-based drummer Craig Reynolds turned to the world of streaming and even gave viewers an inside look into their creative process for Euthanasia along the way. “It was a lot of work but it was really cool. We were getting new people following us every day on Twitch. We kind of looked at it as if we were getting like 50 to 100 people a day discovering the band that’s as good as touring. We just kind of ran with it and started doing multiple streams a day. We made Guillotine on the stream and part of the song was inspired by the people participating in the chat. When we wrote the chorus everyone was losing their shit and that’s when we knew we were onto a winner. We didn’t write everything on stream as I wanted the album to be full of surprises too. Sometimes I was going to stream and I even said to the chat I don’t have any ideas and I really don’t feel like doing this but I stuck it out and wrote the chorus for Bread And Roses.”
STRAY FROM THE PATH have never been afraid to call out corruption and declare their disgust in particular positions of authority. Euthanasia possesses particularly sharp teeth and leaves no stone unturned. “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs in our career and I feel like we’ve always had to wait for people to catch up to us. I remember when we put out Goodnight Alt-Right and the general public didn’t really understand what we were doing,” admits Thomas. “I think in 2022, people would agree that they never really went away. With Badge And A Bullet the message was we don’t think cops should be allowed extra rights than a civilian and people didn’t like that. With Part II we were like ‘hey not all cops, but some cops are killing people’ and people didn’t like that either and now III in 2022, after everything that has happened is ‘fuck all cops, abolish them’ and I think people are finally catching up to what we have been trying to say. It’s just the way it goes, when I was fucking 13 years old listening to Bulls On Parade I didn’t know what ‘Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes. Not need, just feed the war, cannibal animal’ meant. When you get older the message hits different and I think that’s the thing with STRAY FROM THE PATH too. It’s not easy rocking the boat especially when you’re doing it for a living. I fucking hate cops, they just let little children get slaughtered at school and I’m supposed to be cool with that? This band is a vehicle for channelling how we’re feeling.”
Euthanasia is out now via UNFD.
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