There’s an adage in the record industry: You have your whole life to write your first album, and only 12 months to write your second. That’s why explosive debut albums are so often followed by a seemingly inescapable sophomore slump. While the first half of this unspoken industry rule rings true for Fox Lake, the second half of the prophecy—the part that dooms the band to a lukewarm follow–up—couldn’t be farther from the truth.
New World Heat, the long-awaited follow-up to the Denver trio’s 2020 Silence & Violence, is out Aug 1 on MNRK Heavy and doubles down on the successful elements of Fox Lake’s debut and cuts out any filler. The riffs are faster, the vocals are fuller, and the energy is dialed up to 11. To put it simply, New World Heat hits harder.
“One of the things we wanted for this record,” says vocalist Nathan Johnson, “Obviously you want to improve and mature.” That didn’t mean entirely scrapping sounds or techniques that dominated Silence & Violence. But unlike that debut, which saw the young musicians exploring existing styles, it meant establishing and embodying a sound that’s uniquely their own. On New World Heat, Johnson says, “We’re doing Fox Lake.”
Since their first album dropped amid 2020’s heightened pandemic conditions, Fox Lake wasn’t able to tour or ride the wave of excitement most bands enjoy following their debut release. But they also weren’t faced with the challenge of releasing another full-length within the next 12 months. As a result, Fox Lake had five years to build confidence and fine-tune their sound. New World Heat sees them come into their own as a strong voice in the heavy scene.
Along with the rhythmic nu-metal groove riffs and slow-down breakdowns they established on their debut, New World Heat also sees an increase in sampling — a technique that was only lightly used on Silence & Violence.
“I really like pulling things from podcasts or audiobooks even,” Johnson explains, “Just pulling from different things and giving another voice that gives a context of deeper meaning.” And while some of those samples come from expected sources, like Toxic Avenger, others are much less expected, especially the sample from Rango that opens “Gut Check.” Woven in amongst rapid-fire riffs and setting the stage for blunt lyricism, each sample adds an artistic layer of perspective that feels fresh and unique. He notes, “our music sounds like graffiti, but having some artistic intentionality in there was important to me.”
Rather than emulating their influences, Fox Lake carves out their own niche somewhere between industry heavy-hitters like Knocked Loose—who may be too heavy to be accessible to those outside the scene — and polished, pop-leaning acts breaking into the mainstream like Turnstile. “I just felt like there wasn’t a rock and roll version of heavy music,” Johnson says, “and I wanted to fill that void.”
But to make a record that the band would want to listen to themselves, the new record needed to be much faster than what they’d previously released. “I came to the band, and I just stressed this idea that—there was one word, when we were in the studio writing, I just said over and over and over again. I was like, if it doesn’t feel urgent, it doesn’t have a place here.”
That feeling of urgency is ever-present on the album, beginning with the first track, “For the Love of the Game.” “My goal is to give the listener an entire lens to listen through the rest of the record through.” Johnson says. He achieves this is by opening with a sample that “gives this idea of the urgency and importance of cutting things out and being better and improving yourself or the world or all these things that we talk about on the record, but I think sometimes it can come off as just like a ‘fuck you’ dis track.”
While there are plenty of “fuck you” songs on the record, New World Heat is far more than just another angsty record from an emerging heavy band. It’s a rally cry to do better, both for yourself and the world at large. “The idea of at a basic level, is burning something down to start new,” Johnson says. “The idea of it is that action begets action and inaction begets inaction. It’s urgent we do something about it.”
New World Heat is out on Friday, and you can preorder it from MNRK Heavy. Follow Fox Lake on Facebook and Instagram for future updates.
Photo Credit: Thad Sisneros
