HALESTORM vocalist Lzzy Hale has revealed the band’s next studio album is almost complete
In a recent interview with the Everblack podcast at Knotfest Australia, Lzzy revealed HALESTROM is nearing the finish line on songwriting for the hotly anticipated follow-up to their 2022 smash, “Back From The Dead.” This news comes amidst whispers of a potential co-headlining tour with EVANESCENCE, which is rumored to be announced in the days ahead. Could new HALESTORM anthems be on the horizon before we hit the road? Buckle up, HALESTORM fans, it sounds like new music is just around the corner!
Lzzy says: “We’re finishing up writing a new album. And we’re gonna get back in April to finish it up. We’ll be there in a few weeks, and, yeah, we’ll see what happens. And then we’ll be back here in Australia before you know it with some new music.”
At this point in time it seems HALESTORM do not have an album title for the upcoming release, however this seems to be something the band commonly leaves until the last minute.
“Oh, we don’t know that yet” says Lzzy. “As is tradition in Halestorm, we always have the best ideas right when we start, and then we totally trash it, and it’s, like, very last minute, ‘What are we calling the record?’ Last minute, that’s what we do. So, yeah, we don’t know. We’re gonna let it tell us what it is. It’s not up to us; it’s the music.”
Guitarist Joe Hottinger went on to discuss the band’s songwriting process, saying: “Our goal as a band is may the best song win. So riffs are great and all, but at the day, it comes down to the song. Is it a good song or not? And not only is it, like, good, but it’s gotta be great. We have, like, stupid standards. And so really anything goes. If it’s a riff and it starts there, a riff and a melody, cool. Lzzy writes constantly, so she’s always got songs that we’re putting together.”
He added: “We haven’t been in a studio since — I mean, recording for a record — since September. We’ve been busy. We’ve been traveling a bit. But we’ve been writing since then. And while we were at the last one, we just kind of rolled in and wrote a song in the morning and recorded it that night, and it was kind of everything fresh. We started out with a few riffs, but, really, the idea was more about being in that moment. I was talking with Lzzy about it while we were in there, and it was, like ‘Yeah, it’s kind of like we came into the studio with nothing but 20 years of being a band together.”
Hottinger went on to bring up previous recording sessions with HALESTORM, which saw the band ignite ideas and literally write and record tracks in a single day. “We know how to play — we’re all players, we can play, we can write. So, like, ‘It’s a good idea. Cool. Yeah, let’s do that. All right, let’s record it. Here we go.’ And I don’t even remember what I played. I haven’t listened to those songs in a while. And I vaguely remember any of them because it gets so intense. I think we did, like, 13 of them. Day after day after day after day after day, to the point where you’re just, like, ‘I don’t know anything anymore.'”
Last October, Lzzy sat down with TotalRock‘s “Hobo On The Radio” show, and discussed the group’s songwriting sessions for the new album. She said: “We’re always working on new music, but we’ve actually kind of started to buckle down and really kind of write with a purpose as to whatever we wanna kind of put out in the world next.
“It’s kind of an exciting time because I feel like even since the last record, even beyond ‘Back From The Dead’, I feel like we’re kind of shedding our skin in a way that’s kind of beautiful where we all kind of feel like different people than who we were when we were writing the last record. So it’s time for whatever that next chapter is. So it’s very exciting.”
Lzzy continued: “I’ve been writing in a lot of subjects that I haven’t necessarily touched on before and been kind of exploring those things. And I’ve become even more of a serial eavesdropper. I will be sitting at a pub or something and I will kind of zone out, and it’s amazing the conversations you hear other people talking about. And so sometimes those leech their way into the songs. But, yeah, we’ll probably have something by next year.”
HALESTORM‘s journey began back in 1998 when siblings Lzzy (handling guitar and vocals) and Arejay (on drums) decided to form the band while still in middle school. The lineup expanded in 2003 with the addition of guitarist Joe Hottinger, and in 2004, bassist Josh Smith joined the ranks.
Back in May, HALESTORM embarked on a creative collaboration, teaming up with country singer Ashley McBryde to offer a fresh take on their track “Terrible Things,” originally featured on “Back From The Dead.”
Fast forward to December of last year when HALESTORM released the deluxe edition of “Back From The Dead.” This expanded version, aptly titled “Back From The Dead: Deluxe Edition,” not only features the original album but also includes seven previously unreleased B-sides. Among these, you’ll find “Mine,” a track infused with the nostalgic vibes of the 1980s. It’s noteworthy that this deluxe edition is accessible in digital formats as well as on CD and cassette tape, marking the first time the album has been available in these physical formats.
In December 2018, HALESTORM earned a Grammy Award nomination in the “Best Rock Performance” category for their song “Uncomfortable.” Their Grammy journey began six years earlier when the band clinched their first Grammy win, securing the “Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance” award for their hit “Love Bites (So Do I).”