Given the unprecedented pause of the pandemic era, California metalcore prospects SECRETS have ensured they are making up for lost time. Setting a relentless creative pace on the year, the band's 2022 thus far has been jam-packed with getting re-acclimated with sweating out musically both onstage and in the studio.
Pulverizing audiences with their incendiary stage show, the band spent a healthy portion of the first half of the year as an integral component to the Velocity Records live caravan - touring alongside Scary Kids Scaring Kids, D.R.U.G.S., Dead American and Glasslands - leaving a growing community of converts in their wake. Adding to the community of passionate followers that have championed the band for the last decade.
While refining their live translation, SECRETS were also unveiling a steady succession of preview singles from their fifth full length studio effort, The Collapse. In addition to serving as the band's first long form since their lauded 2018 self-titled LP, the album was replete with punchy songs that were equally dynamic as they were drubbing - uncompromisingly aggressive while managing to feel articulate.
Composed in two very polarized creative climates, The Collapse began pre-pandemic, however, the album really found it's full potential during the historic halt brought on by the weirdness of the pandemic. Completed during a stretch the band confides was "the most confusing times we've ever experienced" the weight of real life strife in navigating anxiety, depression, addiction, loss and hope permeated in a powerful 12-track presentation that lay bare genuine emotion, convincing catharsis and artistic agility too profound to make this just another album in the catalog.
Ahead the arrival of The Collapse from Secrets, the band has dissected their own work to better illustrate the kind of headspace that gave rise to what many believe to be a reflection of their artistry in full stride. Track-by-track, Secrets' vocalist/guitarist Richard Rogers pulls back the curtain on their fifth full length metalcore masterclass with breakdown of an album stylized out of strife.
"The Collapse"
Rogers - The collapse is a song about addiction and substance abuse. We wanted the music to match the theme of the lyrics which are pretty dark and hopeless, so we incorporated aggressive, in-your-face guitar work throughout the entire song until the bridge where you get a moment of hope and then we bring you straight back into the trenches with a massive ending breakdown.
"Parasite"
Rogers - 'Parasite' is a song about pure hatred for the constant anxiety that we deal with and facing that internal struggle head on. It's just a minute and thirty seconds of constant heavy. We've always wanted to write a short beatdown song with no real chorus, so we finally made it and it's the most stressful song on the record, but in the best way.
"Falling Out"
Rogers - 'Falling Out' is about depression, anxiety and that hopeless feeling that you'll never feel normal again when you're stuck in that state of panic. This song is one of the most important songs lyrically and thematically. It covers all of the vibes we were going for on the record. 'Falling Out' has everything that you would want from a SECRETS song, with soaring choruses, aggressive breakdowns, and meaningful lyrics.
"Get Outta My Head"
Rogers - 'Get Outta My Head' is another song that follows the main theme of the record, which is dealing with anxiety and depression, but hiding it, so it doesn’t affect everyone around you. But, in doing so, you're ultimately making it worse for yourself. We've all got something on the inside that we need to talk about, but it's hard to open up when you're introverted.
"The Drift"
Rogers - 'Drift' was written to be an instrumental interlude, but when we added vocals, it really completed the song. Although a short one, you can kind of consider it a more somber, nihilistic counterpart to 'Parasite'.
"Delinquent"
Rogers - This song has one of my all time favorite intros/verses we've ever written, it just hits so hard and leads into a very smooth, but furious chorus and it's all beneath lyrics that are essentially disregarding anyone's concern for you and you're going to do whatever you need to numb the pain that you're going through.
"Fraud"
Rogers - 'Fraud' is one of the last songs we wrote for the album and it ended up being tracked in a few different places. My vocals were all done in Nashville and Wade ended up tracking out in Orange County, but I'm so glad that we stuck through with getting it done in the weird way that we had too, cause taking our time, processing all of the songs and working on them in different environments helped us make the best product possible.
"Bad Decisions"
Rogers - Just like the title suggests, we wrote this song about continuously making the wrong move over and over again and how important it is to take time to reflect on how your actions are affecting yourself as well as the people around you.
"Glory"
Rogers - 'Glory' is one of the first songs we wrote for the record. After finally getting back into the studio during the pandemic, we were feeling an uplifting song about pushing through every obstacle in front of you and the strength it takes to achieve your goals. We've covered this topic a few times, because it's something you think about a lot when pursuing any dream, especially in the music industry, which is brutal, but writing this song when everything was shutdown really inspired us to power through and continue to create in such a dark time.
"Lost"
Rogers - This track was rewritten instrumentally quite a few times. We had this really cool experimental riff as the base of the song originally, and it was a lot more of a vibey pop song, but we ended up deciding that this record should continue to be aggressive from front to back. So, we kept that riff, lowered the tuning and starting chopping patterns around it and after like four months it turned into one of my favorite songs we've ever created.
"The Let Down"
Rogers - 'The Let Down' is a hard one to interpret, because it can really be about a few different things, such as the push and pull of a relationship, addiction, or depression. Since we have two different vocalists who can convey lyrics in different ways this happens a lot with us, so it's best to let the listener take away what they feel it's about.
"Fade Away"
Rogers - Without a doubt this was the hardest song for me to write on the entire album, but I knew I had to do it. 'Fade Away' is about the passing of our previous vocalist Aaron, which happened not long before we flew out to Florida to start working on the record. One thing I'll always look back on with fond memories is the last time we did a record out in Florida we were both in a terrible hotel room writing lyrics together. Then, full circle, I end up back in a terrible hotel room in Florida writing a song about him!
The Collapse from SECRETS arrives June 10th via Velocity Records. Get the album - HERE
