“It’s been almost five years since we’ve headlined the Midwest and West Coast of the USA and we are excited to be coming at you all first to support our new album ‘The Wretched; The Ruinous‘. We’ve got two killer bands joining us on all dates, Upon A Burning Body and 156/Silence, as well as some yet to be announced bands on select gigs. See you all out there.” – UNEARTH
UNEARTH – “The Wretched; The Ruinous” Album Release Tour (With Special Guests Upon A Burning Body and 156/Silence):
5/4 – Lubbock, TX – Jake’s
5/5 – El Paso, TX – Rock House
5/6 – Tucson, AZ – The Rock
5/7 – Anaheim, CA – Parish Room @ House of Blues
5/8 – Los Angeles, CA – The Regent Theater
5/9 – Roseville, CA – Goldfields
5/11 – Portland, OR – Star Theater
5/12 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon
5/14 – Salt Lake City, UT – Soundwell
5/15 – Denver, CO – HQ
5/16 – Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck
5/18 – Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups
5/19 – Rochester, NY – Montage Music Hall
UNEARTH Supporting Halo Effect With Special Guests High Command:
5/20 – Hartford, CT – The Webster
5/21 – Brooklyn, NY – Monarch
5/22 – Philadelphia, PA – Brooklyn Bowl
5/23 – Worcester, MA – The Palladium Upstairs
5/24 – Quebec City, QC – Imperial bell
5/25 – Montreal, QC – Fairmount Theatre
5/26 – Toronto, ON – Horseshoe Tavern
5/27 – Detroit, MI – Crofoot Ballroom
UNEARTH Festival Dates:
5/28 – Milwaukee, WI – Milwaukee Metal Fest
6/15 – Dessel, Belgium – Graspop Metal Meeting
6/16 – Clisson, France – Hellfest 2023
6/30 – Emmen, Netherlands – Pitfest
7/2 Saarbrucken, Germany – Reality Bites Fest
On album number eight, “The Wretched; The Ruinous,” UNEARTH not merely continues to amp-up their metal meets hardcore intensities, but they also exceed themselves with a record that incorporates elements of classic UNEARTH offerings dating back to 2004’s “breakthrough” “The Oncoming Storm,” while exploring beyond the recent back-to-basics promise of 2018’s Extinction(s). For UNEARTH’s founding mainstays, Trevor Phipps and guitarist Buz McGrath, it feels like the beginning of a new chapter. “Buz took the entire pandemic to write these songs,” says Trevor. “He pushed himself to get out of his comfort zone and explore what UNEARTH is, both past and present. Buz adding these new elements and killer song structures inspired me to be more diverse vocally. The Wretched; the Ruinous is still UNEARTH, but it’s also the most dynamic record we’ve ever done.”
Teaming again with Extinction(s) producer, Will Putney (Body Count, Thy Art Is Murder), the goal was simple: create the definitive UNEARTH record. From the scathing title track opener to the explosive “Cremation of the Living”, the brooding “Mother Betrayal” to the album’s riff-violent closer, “Theaters of War”, “The Wretched; The Ruinous” is UNEARTH pulling out all the stops. “There’s certain songs where you can really hear the band’s hardcore roots,” explains Trevor. “The track ‘Dawn of the Militant’ is a true mix of metal and heavy hardcore, that to me define what the term ‘metalcore’ truly is. For the bulk of this record though, the metal, aggression, and technicality are reminiscent of our Watchers of Rule (2014) album. All of the ingredients of UNEARTH are present on these songs, but the band continues to explore new territories as writers and players.”
“The Wretched; The Ruinous” is a turning point moment for UNEARTH. It’s first album in their canon recorded without guitarist Ken Susi, who mutually parted with the band in 2022. Trevor shares, “It simply came time for Unearth and Ken to take a break from working together. He’ll always be a large part of the story of this band, and we wish him the best on all of his endeavors”
The front man makes no bones about the arduous writing process for “The Wretched; The Ruinous“. “Coming out of the pandemic I found myself struggling to find my zone of creativity with writing, but I pushed through, and once I found it things caught fire.” Phipps has never been one to shy away from often scathing social commentary. “Lyrically, it’s a warning shot record,” Trevor continues. “I’ve spoken about the decline of our environment by Mankind’s hand dating back to our first record in 2001, and I’ve continued to write about the environmental crisis throughout our entire career. We are now at a tipping point with Mother Nature and our place on this planet, and I had to devote the entirety of this album to what is happening around us. This album is a collection of stories of what is happening, and what is to come, if we do not make monstrous changes to how we treat our only home.”
“The Wretched; The Ruinous is about the eight billion people on this planet,” echoes the front-man of UNEARTH’s latest state of the world address. “We’ve created a man-made mass extinction event and have been too slow to correct our faults. Extreme weather, drought, famine, disease, erosion of land, culture wars, civil wars, wars for natural resources, and the displacement of billions of people, is all a current reality. This isn’t a future problem; it is a now problem and I take this record to talk about it. As a species we are very quickly turning our once Garden of Eden into our future hellscape.”
“It’s not all devastation and gloom though,” adds Phipps. “On the track ‘Call of Existence’ I talk about how we can turn this around with swift, drastic changes to our emissions and consumption of natural resources. There is a responsible way forward that will benefit all life on our planet, and we have to embrace and act on that responsibility now.”
“The Wretched; The Ruinous” Album Artwork
UNEARTH are nothing short of standard-bearers and keepers of the faith for American metalcore. They were the band born in the breakdown who never wavered from their love for European death metal melodicism, supercharged by American thrash and hardcore. Now, nearly 25 years into a career that’s seen the Massachusetts mob play innumerable gigs and massive festivals on six continents, sell hundreds of thousands of records, and inspire some of the most important bands in extreme metal today, they remain a force to contend with. For UNEARTH, the mission is simple: keep being UNEARTH.
Says the band: “We formed this band to make music for us, not trying to create something for anyone else. As soon as we did that people connected to it, and it’s kept us pushing onward for almost 25 years. We look forward to 25 more.”
Adds Phipps: “The mentality has always been to look at UNEARTH as long term as possible. We’ve continuously cited the careers of CANNIBAL CORPSE, TESTAMENT, EXODUS and SLAYER as bands that kept going, never compromising their music and touring hard around the world. We adopted that mentality early on and it’s kept us going for almost a quarter century. We love what we do, and we will keep on doing it.”
Joining Trevor, guitarist Buz McGrath and longtime bassist Chris O’Toole on the road is not only new guitarist Peter Layman (ex-APIARY),who played with UNEARTH before, but also drummer Mike Justian, long considered an integral part of UNEARTH‘s halcyon days.
“Mike‘s live performance and presence are unmatched, and we couldn’t be happier to have him back with us,” states Trevor. In the summer of 2022, with Justian and Layman, the band headed off to Europe for festivals and haven’t looked back since, with appearances at various U.S. festivals, a tour in Mexico to round out 2022, and upcoming world touring in 2023, with tours in Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Europe all on the docket in the first quarter of the new year.
