THE DAMNED THINGS Guitarist Discusses 'Cells' Single, Video

March 19, 2019

A new trailer for "High Crimes", the upcoming album from THE DAMNED THINGS, can be seen below. In the trailer, guitarist Joe Trohman discusses the band's new single, "Cells", and the idea behind the accompanying music video.

The "Cells" clip was directed by Brandon Dermer, who has previously worked with PANIC! AT THE DISCO and NEKROGOBLIKON.

"High Crimes" will be released on April 26 via Nuclear Blast.

The supergroup comprised of members of EVERY TIME I DIE, ANTHRAX and FALL OUT BOY recently confirmed the addition of ALKALINE TRIO bassist Dan Andriano to its ranks. He replaces Josh Newton (EVERY TIME I DIE),who hasn't been part of the band since it was reactivated three years ago. Also gone from THE DAMNED THINGS is guitarist Rob Caggiano (VOLBEAT, ANTHRAX).

"Normally, when career bands say they made a record for fun, they didn't — but we actually did. Maybe that's why this band doesn't have a career?" said THE DAMNED THINGS' Joe Trohman. "Anyway, we're genuinely proud of it. Check it out, and watch the video to see how severely injured we got during the process!"

"High Crimes" was produced by Jay Ruston (ANTHRAX, STONE SOUR, AMON AMARTH) and is the follow-up to 2010's "Ironiclast".

"High Crimes" track listing:

01. Cells
02. Something Good
03. Invincible
04. Omen
05. Carry A Brick
06. Storm Catcher
07. Young Hearts
08. Keep Crawling
09. Let Me Be (Your Girl)
10. The Fire Is Cold

Trohman — who also plays in FALL OUT BOY — told Kerrang! magazine that the band was originally planning to release a new EP "but then it got to the point where we just made a whole record. The more we put into it, the more we were, like, 'Okay, let's just do this,'" he said. "I hate using the terms 'organically,' because it's a pretty shitty buzzword, but it happened organically. [Laughs]"

Trohman also spoke about some of the individual tracks on "High Crimes", saying: "I originally wanted to open the record with this song called 'Storm Charmer' because it was really slow and ominous, which is probably a bad idea. [Laughs] I think I love 'Cells' — that is one of my favorite songs on the record. 'Cells', 'Omen' and 'Carry A Brick' are some of my favorites.

"Honestly, I've been sitting with the demos for nearly two years, and I still haven't got sick of any of it," he continued. "I don't listen to it in a self-serving way. I'll listen to them and think, 'When am I going to hate them?' And every time I listen to them, I really like all these songs. It's the first time I've listened to a record and found there's not a lot I would change. With making anything, I could tweak it forever, but I think with this one, the mentality was just: go in, write these songs, and when they're done, they're done. Don't overthink anything. Hopefully, by approaching it in a 'Let's make them sound really cool and not tweak them forever' stance, then they would be the rawest possible version. I though the last record was definitely a little flippant in production, and I just wanted to pull back on that."

THE DAMNED THINGS was formed a decade ago, when FALL OUT BOY's Andy Hurley and ANTHRAX's Scott Ian started writing music together. The band played its first show two years later and released its debut album, "Ironiclast", in December 2010. After performing a few gigs together, the members took a hiatus and returned to their respective bands.

In addition to Ian and Hurley, "Ironiclast" featured EVERY TIME I DIE frontman Keith Buckley, Trohman, Newton and Caggiano.

Find more on Anthrax
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).