Shinedown have built their name on rock songs both brutal in power and epic in scope.
Now, with their latest album, Shinedown (Brent Smith, Barry Kerch, Eric Bass, and Zach
Myers) veer away from that densely layered sonic palette and take a more direct
approach. Featuring lead single “Cut the Cord” — a blistering track that shot to #1 on
Active Rock radio — Threat to Survival finds the multi-platinum-selling band achieving
their most powerful sound ever and offering up their most important album to date.
As Smith explains, Shinedown’s approach on Threat to Survival had much to do with
the emotionally raw material at the heart of the album. “When we started the writing
process we realized the changes that had taken place over the past 2 years, our
experiences, the relationships that had come and gone, the album really took on a life of
its own,” says Smith. “It’s like the songs were saying to us, ‘The songs were so honest,
it felt necessary to present them in the most straightforward way possible.”
In forming the emotional core of the album, Shinedown delved into many of the most
thorny issues facing the band members in recent years, such as Smith’s navigating his
role as a father. “There’s not any song that’s directly about my son, but as we were
writing I was asking myself a lot of questions about what it means to be a good father,”
he says. “It forced me to look at who I am as a person and what’s really important to me
at this point in my life.” In both the writing process and in the final product, that
unflinching self-examination proved sometimes devastating but ultimately life-affirming.
“I always say that I write songs because it’s therapy, and that very much held true on
the writing of this album,” Smith notes.
Throughout Threat to Survival, Shinedown explore matters of life and death and beauty
and pain with a fierce energy and indomitable spirit. On “Cut the Cord” — a song that
continues a record-setting streak in which each of the 19 singles released over
Shinedown’s career has climbed to the upper regions of the radio charts — the band
looks at the insidious nature of self-destruction and puts out a call for selfempowerment. “Some people might listen to ‘Cut the Cord’ and think it’s about drug
addiction,” says Smith, pointing to one of the song’s most piercing lyrics (“’Cause agony
breeds no reward for one more hit and one last score”). “But really it’s about anything
that might wrap itself around you and keep you from becoming the person you truly
want to be.” Produced by Shinedown’s own Eric Bass, “Cut the Cord” fuses Smith’s
growling vocal work with thunderous drumming and lead-heavy guitar riffs, weaving in
spooky, choirlike background vocals to thrilling effect.
Elsewhere on Threat to Survival, Shinedown instill their self-reflection with a brighter
mood that’s often exhilarating in its intensity. On the piano-laced “How Did You Love,”
for instance, Smith’s soaring vocals demand an exacting reassessment of how to go
about building a more meaningful life. (“It’s not what you believe/Those prayers will
make you bleed/But while you’re on your knees/How did you love?”). “That song’s about
asking yourself about how you’ve dealt with difficult situations in your life, and whether
you tried to give some love to the world or just allowed hate and negativity to consume
you,” says Smith. “So the lyric is ‘How did you love?’, but really the question is ‘How did
you live?’”
A bold statement of determination against all odds, “State of My Head” opens with an
ethereal, dreamlike intro before powering forward as a groove-driven anthem (“The only
way I’m leaving is dead/That’s the state of my head”). With its stomping rhythm and
surging guitar work, “Outcast” is as a full-throttle celebration of unbridled confidence and
daring manifesto of Shinedown’s dedication to constantly outdoing themselves as
artists. And on “Black Cadillac,” Smith delivers a darkly charged but soulful epic that
twists its funereal metaphor into a strikingly hopeful message. “For me ‘Black Cadillac’
is a warning to take inventory of who you are and realize that nobody owes you
anything in this world,” says Smith. “It’s about looking around and noticing the things
you’ve maybe taken for granted, and deciding to become something better than that
before your time’s up.”
“If you’re going to make something that’s going to exist forever, sometimes you have to
fight yourself to get out what you need to express,” says Smith. “You need to break
down all the walls and get rid of whatever distractions that might be holding you back.”
Shinedown continually bring both staggering musicality and a powerful emotional
complexity to their music. “There’s always been a certain level of positivity with
Shinedown — that’s even where our name came from,” says Smith. “There’s a sense
that everything that’s bad has a little bit of good to it, just like everything that’s good has
a little bit of bad. The songs on this album address the reality that we’re all going to die
at some point and that sometimes the willingness to survive is all you have. It’s about
holding onto that sheer will to live, and getting through whatever might come your way
because the legacy that you leave behind is what will carry you on to your next journey.”
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