Black Lines

Background

Mayday Parade released their fourth album, Monsters in the Closet in October 2013. While touring in support of that release, vocalist Derek Sanders thought the group was "beginning to become too predictable". He mentioned Monsters in the Closest as sounding "very similar" to their past material. A view also shared by the band's guitarist, Alex Garcia. For the follow-up album, Sanders "really wanted [it] to feel like something different." A turning point for the band came when they recorded a cover of the Bush song "Comedown" for the Punk Goes 90s Vol. 2 (2014) compilation album. The band tackled the song differently from their other recordings, recording it live-in-the-studio. Sanders thought this was "a much rawer way of recording" that the band haven't previously done.

Composition

While the group, according to Garcia, "experiment[ed] with co-writers" in the past, they wanted to "become more internal", writing all of the songs on Black Lines by themselves. Kerrang! writer Paul Travers noted that while the band's past works were collections of pop rock songs, Black Lines had "a rawer, grittier sound with a more dynamic approach" to song structures. The album's sound has been described as emo, emo-pop, pop punk and rock. "One of Them Will Destroy the Other" features guest vocals from Real Friends' vocalist Dan Lambton. "Letting Go" is about "self pity and not having the strength to get over a bad relationship. It's about that weird spot when someone breaks you down even though you know they're toxic."

Recording

In March 2015 the band started recording at Dreamland Recording Studios near Woodstock, New York with producer Mike Sapone. The studio was in fact a converted church. Guitarist Brooks Betts used his Fender Telecaster guitar, which has been used on all of the band's albums, while Garcia used his Gibson Les Paul and Fender Stratocaster guitars. The pair used a Marshall JCM800 amplifier. The pair used a number of effects pedals and frequently "switch[ed] them out", according to Garcia. One of two specific pedals they used was the Supermoon Reverb, which Garica "absolute love[d]". The other being the Kilobyte, which was used to create a lot of the ambient sounds heard on "One of Them Will Destroy the Other" and "Hollow". Despite this, they wanted to "avoid cluttering the sound" as much as possible.

Lambton recorded his vocals for "One of Them Will Destroy the Other" while Real Friends had an off-day from touring. The initial plan for the song was to have Lambton and Sanders do call and response vocals throughout it. On May 21, it was announced the band had finished recording. All of the songs were mixed by Vince Ratti, except for "Look Up and See Infinity, Look Down and See Nothing", which was mixed by Sapone. Claudius Mittendorfer and Sapone engineered the proceedings, with assistance from Zachary Casper and Bella Blasks. Stephen Marcussen mastered the album.

Release

On July 17, 2015 Black Lines was announced for release, with the track listing and cover art revealed. The artwork was done by Wolfstache with art direction from Florian Mihr. On July 30, "Keep in Mind, Transmorgrification Is a New Technology" was made available for streaming. A video for the song features an artist re-creating the album's cover art. A day later, it was released as a single. On August 28, a music video was released for "One of Them Will Destroy the Other", directed by Caleb Mallery. On October 1, "Letting Go" was made available for streaming, and was released as single a day later. Black Lines was released on October 9 through Fearless. In October and November, the band is set to headline the 2015 edition of the Alternative Press tour, with support from Real Friends, As It Is, and This Wild Life.

In January and February 2016, the band went on a tour of Europe and the UK, with support from The Maine, Have Mercy and Beautiful Bodies. In March and April, the band went on a co-headlining U.S. tour with The Maine with support from Better Off. The band went on the 2016 edition of Warped Tour.

Reception

The album charted at number 21 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and at number 32 in Australia. Sam Law of Kerrang! wrote the album highlighted the band's "absolute best bits", specifically mentioning "Hollow", "Underneath the Tide" and "All on Me". Law pondered about "Hit singles" before concluding the group does not need "them when your record's as good as this throughout." Writing for Rock Sound, Mischa Pearlman wrote the band showed off "their versatility [...] to varying degrees of success." In some songs, such as "One of Them Will Destroy the Other" and "Keep in Mind, Transmogrification Is a New Technology", the group "cruise[d] comfortably [...] in full-on emo-pop mode." In others, namely "Hollow" and "All on Me", the band are "far more interesting and exciting." Overall, Pearlman closed with mention this "all makes for an ultimately uneven and unfocused journey, but one still worth investigating".

Track listing

All songs written by Mayday Parade.

1. "One of Them Will Destroy the Other" (feat. Dan Lambton) – 3:10
2. "Just Out of Reach" – 3:43
3. "Hollow" – 3:12
4. "Letting Go" – 3:50
5. "Let's Be Honest" – 3:51
6. "Keep in Mind, Transmogrification Is a New Technology" – 5:27
7. "Narrow" – 3:07
8. "Underneath the Tide" – 2:51
9. "All on Me" – 4:15
10. "Until You're Big Enough" – 3:15
11. "Look Up and See Infinity, Look Down and See Nothing" – 2:51
12. "One of Us" – 4:27

Personnel

Personnel per back panel.