Code Orange have finally announced their highly-anticipated followup to 2020's Underneath. It's called The Above, and it's due September 29 via Blue Grape Music. We've got an exclusive transparent ochre vinyl variant up for pre-order now and limited to just 350 copies worldwide. Check out a mock-up below.
The Above was produced by the band's own Jami Morgan and Eric “Shade” Balderose, and engineered by Steve Albini. Jami says, "We wanted the album to be able to wash over you with melody, aggression, and joy, but it was of equal importance that the closer you look, the more you are rewarded. It was to feel rooted in the “analogue” world, but with threads of digital reality binding things together. We wanted the sound and even the recording process itself to reflect that edict, so we enlisted Steve Albini at Electrical Audio to get the most real and raw version of the band possible, even recording us all at once in a room together for the first time in our career."
Code Orange prefaced the announcement with two brutally aggressive singles, "Grooming My Replacement" and "The Game," which both appear on the LP, but they show off a much different side on new single "Take Shape." It takes cues from turn-of-the-millennium industrial rock and nu metal, and it feels like one of the band's most widely accessible songs yet. It also features a bridge sung by The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, whose collaboration with the band was first teased over two years ago. It comes with a music video that also hearkens back to the '90s / early 2000s, which stars Jami Morgan as the video's protagonist, and which Jami co-directed with Max Moore, marking Jami's directorial debut. The video's storyline picks up where the "Grooming My Replacement" video left off. Jami says:
I have been working on the concept for this video, and others to come, for about a year and a half. I am so thankful to have been able to sit under the learning tree of Max Moore and our DP Eric Robbins. They allowed me to sit in on every minute of this process from hirings to scouting, all the way to final coloring. Being that deep was a revelation, and I have found a new love along the way. I couldn’t be prouder of the result.
Check out the new video, album artwork, tracklist, and mock-up of our vinyl variant below. Pre-order the variant here.
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Tracklist
Never Far Apart
Theatre Of Cruelty
Take Shape (feat. Billy Corgan)
The Mask Of Sanity Slips
Mirror
A Drone Opting Out Of The Hive
I Fly
Splinter The Soul
The Game
Grooming My Replacement
Snapshot
Circle Through
But A Dream…
The Above
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Code Orange also have some upcoming festival appearances, including their own Code's World in Pittsburgh on September 30 with Madball, Vein.fm, E.Town Concrete, 200 Stab Wounds, Pain of Truth, Gridiron, 1-800-Pain, Killbourne, Wristmeetrazor, Live It Down, Hazing Over, and Pain Clinic. All dates:
Code Orange -- 2023 Tour Dates
9/1: Rocklahoma (Pryor, OK)
9/2: Restless Fest (Dallas, TX)
9/3: Restless Fest (San Antonio, TX)
9/21: Louder Than Life (Louisville, KY)
9/15-17: Riot Fest (Chicago, IL)
9/30: Code’s World (Pittsburgh, PA)
2/4-10: ShipRocked Cruise
