Brent Smith talked in detail about Shinedown’s new album Planet Zero, a unique concept album that serves as a commentary on the current state of the world and what it could become.
Speaking to Loudwire Nights, Smith acknowledged the album’s subject matter saying, “The record is not a complete political record, thought-provoking record in regards to, ‘This is what we think and you should think that way.’ It’s the complete opposite of that. What it is, it’s historical. Nobody writes records like these anymore.”
Smith also added, “It’s heavy stuff. There’s a lot of psychology to it… This band’s been writing about mental health for 20 years. There’s a lot of triumph on this record, though, too — an immense amount of triumph. But there’s also elements here where some people will say that it’s a big more aggressive than usual, but it’s necessary, because the only way to get the point across in some of this material, we have to be aggressive. This was a record that was written for the people, by the people.”
As previously reported, Planet Zero centers around a robot character named Cyren. Shinedown bassist/producer Eric Bass said in a statement, “Cyren’s the robot welcoming you to Planet Zero, which could potentially be the future we all live in: a place with zero sense, zero accountability, zero tolerance for any opinion different from what you hear on Twitter or TV.”
A press release on the album noted, “‘Planet Zero’ offers an incisive look at a strange and terrifying moment in history and its implications for the future of humankind, building a dystopian framework around its exploration of the issues at hand: the corrosive effects of social media, cancel culture and its many hypocrisies, the increasingly toxic divisions among those of differing ideologies. The result is an ultra-vivid and utterly absorbing futuristic saga in the form of 13 viscerally charged rock songs, spliced with interludes featuring an insidious character called Cyren.”
Planet Zero comes out on April 22 and is available for pre-save on streaming platforms here, while exclusive formats and merch bundles are available for pre-order at Store.Shinedown.com.