A long-running Metal band has had their first mainstream hit – with an acoustic ballad.
Brisbane Groove Metal band Acid Rain formed in 1999, have been released eight albums, and have toured the world numerous times, being compared to the likes of Devildriver, Chimaira, and Pantera.
Despite this acclaim, they’re yet to break into the mainstream…until now.
While recording their ninth album ‘Songs in Valhalla’, they released a teaser of an acoustic song to their various social media channels, called ‘I Must Continue’, a short song about enduring the repetitive touring cycle after two decades. While frontman Jesse Howard sings with a mix of harsh and clean vocals, he stuck to clean vocals for ‘…Continue’, with just an acoustic guitar. And it paid off.
“I was mucking around with an acoustic guitar in the studio on day and ‘…Continue’ eventually came out the other end. While some of our hardcore fans didn’t like it, we got interest from a whole bunch of new listeners who loved the song. So we recorded it properly and released it as our first official single for ‘…Valhalla.'” said Howard.
While the band have done a few slower songs before, they’re usually a mix of acoustic and metal, starting slowly before building up into the band’s trademark heavy sound and ending into a flourish. This is the first genuine acoustic song they’ve done.
“I was tempted to put all the usual bells and whistles on it, but we had a meeting and said that the fans loved the original version, so let’s stick to that and see what happens.”
‘…Continue’ has been gaining airplay on commercial radio stations, some more interest from mainstream music websites/magazines, and has non-Metal fans wondering where this ‘new’ band has come from.
Of course, that’s sparked backlash from the loyal fans who’ve been with them for years, but Howard was mindful of that and made sure they quickly put out a couple of heavier songs to appease the die-hards.
“We gave the true ‘Rainers’ the heavy songs they wanted, so they’re happy. They can skip ‘…Continue’ when the album comes out if they want. That’s their choice. There’s another nine heavy tunes on there they can enjoy,” said Howard.
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