The sign of monumental progression is when a band follows up a career-best album with a new record that towers over that which preceded it. That’s not to say that Alabama’s Gideon and their 2019 release Out of Control still doesn’t slap; it’s just that the cowboy booted-step up to More Power. More Pain., due out March 17th via Equal Vision Records, is incredible. And unlike most metal and hardcore bands where the vocalist and guitarist are the stars of the show (and sure, they fucking deliver the goods here), it’s Gideon’s rhythm section that deserve extra praise. Whether it’s drummer (and sole remaining original member) Jake Smelley’s ability to dictate and drive song’s groove, or bassist Caleb DeRusha’s (who also writes guitar parts) neck-snapping fretwork, both are the essential ingredients for Gideon’s trademarked (by me) rhythm and groove metalcore.
That said, it’s much more than the music that feels empowered and aspirational here. Gideon’s very public reclamation of their story has entered a new chapter with More Power. More Pain. Serving as a template for how to remain true to yourself and become something totally unique, this is Southern metalcore with the emphasis on the South. Outlaw country, NASCAR t-shirts, Stetson hats, and bluesy grooves, Gideon embody where they hail and the blood, sweat, and tears that helped them escape small town Americana, only to have to go back during the Pandemic.
The word I keep going back to is authenticity: you can take the kid out of the South, but the South has its claws on you, so why hide it. Smelley expands on this notion:
“Coming up and doing this since we were kids, I think we’re always scared to be ourselves to the absolute fullest. Because all of the bands that we looked up to were so different from us. And so it kind of seemed like this far away thing that we could be ourselves and be successful, if that makes any sense. And so for you to say that, that means a whole lot, because that’s all we’ve been trying to do is just be ourselves on a 10, you know what I mean? Just be as authentic as possible.”
“We’re just wanting to make sure,” DeRusha adds, “that we’re not going out of our way to really do what anyone is thinking we should be doing it or anything. We want to just be doing it absolutely everything we want to do musically, lyrically, anything. I feel like we get a lot of people saying this is a new thing and stuff, and I guess it is in a sense to what Gideon is, but I don’t know, every year I like to think that I’ve grown enough to become a new person. So it’s like I don’t feel like you can sit there and put a label on someone and then really, you have to be the same a year or two later even. We’re trying to follow whatever happens, follow whatever comes our way.”
“With every record we go through,” he continues “I feel like we open up a little bit more on who we are and what we’re going through in our lives in that time. And it’s really cool to look back on album to album and just see the different chapters of our lives. But this one had a lot to do with opening up on levels that I don’t think we’ve really gotten before because we hadn’t lived through certain things before. And this one just, I mean it’s odd sometimes being in a band because you basically pour your heart and life out and hope that the world approves of it.”
“Another thing,” DeRusha notes, “we’ve really tried to do is build each other up to the point where it doesn’t matter what the world necessarily thinks because we have each other. And I think what we’ve done is really just try to be as open and honest about the stories that are going on in our lives in the current moment. And this album happens all through COVID and so it was a lot of puzzles to put together. And we had to answer a lot of tough questions for ourselves.”
The rousing cover art showcases a renewed strength through ferocity, and having to drop a career-defining record right before COVID hit, Gideon are ready to break out of their cage, so to speak, as Smelley shares:
“It really got the fire started burning a little harder, and I think that that’s why this record sounds the way it does. And I don’t think there’s any other way to explain that. I feel like it’s a true representation of somebody that has kicked the door down, ran out of the fence, and somebody put them right back in their place. And it’s us being like, we’re not going anywhere, and we have things to say, and this is what means the most to us in this life, is the story we have to tell and the music we have to create. This is our lifeline. [Regarding the album art] it just reared its head. When I look at it tells the story so perfectly because it really is like that the bull made it out of the fence and now he’s just found himself wrapped up in barbed wire again.”
“It’s a cycle of getting in and getting out,” DeRusha adds, “I always know that we would’ve made a crazy record next after Out of Control, but the fact that COVID happened right after that, it seemed to emphasize and put this new fire under us that really made it what it was. Losing it all to get back on top. We didn’t know when we got back [from the studio] how we were going to pay rent, how we were going to do anything. But we knew that this was a life-or-death situation. I feel like that’s what I really love about being in this band is it really does feel like life or death.”
On them going all-out as a capital “S” Southern band:
“I think that has a lot to do with me, personally,” Smelley answers. “We fought like hell to get out of our hometown and fought like hell to not be stuck here. But really, when it comes down to who you are and who you are as an artist, you can’t try to fool yourself out of where you come from and your influences and things like that. While we were home for that whole COVID break, I found myself just listening more and more. Maybe it was the fact that I was working a blue-collar hands-on job, but I find myself listening to a lot of outlaw music, a lot of Americana. It really inspired me to want to bleed that more into our sound because I started realizing a lot of people in that world listen to heavy music; those worlds are not that far apart because they’re both these underground movements that are trying to make their way up. I found myself wanting to talk more about where we’re from. You got a lot of people out here that are just trying to make what the band next to them on the bill is trying to make and we’re trying to stay away from that as much as possible and be who we are.”
There’s an empowering message underneath the barbed-wire-encrusted skull: finding solace in those who believe in you and supporting each other, as DeRusha shares:
“There’s power to other people. I feel like that’s one thing we also want to bring to the table is showing people that come from the same type places we do. I can’t tell you how many musicians and artists I’ve met in my hometown that feel stuck here, and they feel like there’s no way they could follow their dreams and be successful. And it’s really just the taking a jump and trusting the process. And I hope that, if anything, people hear our music and feel inspired. That’s a big thing that I would like people to take from our band: being true to yourself no matter how bad that hurts sometimes.”
Their new album is available in the Equal Vision Records store. The band is also on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for you to follow if you want to keep up with future updates.
