STRAY FROM THE PATH release new single, ‘Bread & Roses’, featuring Jesse Barnett of Stick To Your Guns

STRAY FROM THE PATH release new single, Bread & Roses, featuring Jesse Barnett of Stick To Your Guns

TAKEN FROM THE NEW ALBUM, EUTHANASIA, OUT SEPTEMBER 9TH ON UNFD

PLUS: INTIMATE ALBUM RELEASE UK & EU HEADLINE DATES IN OCTOBER

As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!
As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women’s children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.
As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.
As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life’s glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and roses.

– James Oppenheim, “Bread and Roses,” The American Magazine, December, 1911.

Photo Credit: Gabe Becerra

Long Island, NY/UK alternative hardcore band, Stray From The Path, today release their new single, ‘Bread & Roses’, featuring longtime friend and co-conspirator, Jesse Barnett, of Stick To Your Guns.

To celebrate the collaboration – UNFD, Stray From The Path & All Power Books have teamed up to offer an exclusive limited press of Euthanasia on half gold / half red vinyl (available from 5pm today at http://sftpmerch.com/). Only 100 copies have been produced and all profits will go directly to All Power Books, which is a Los Angeles community space and bookstore that directly serves its community based on the ideas of social investigation and socialism. More at: https://allpowerbooks.org/

“If you know Stray, you know that since we first met in 2008 and throughout our whole career, Jesse Barnett is family,” says guitarist Tom Williams. “A person that walks the walk and someone everybody should look up to as an example of direct action to help people in need. We had this idea for the song and there aren’t many people that are qualified for it more than him. In addition to his voice being the perfect fit for the vibe, we wanted to do something that helps boost his efforts and supports his mutual aid projects in the Los Angeles community. We did a special All Power Books vinyl variant of our new album, where all of the profit from these sales go directly to people in need. A lot of time, it is hard to feel confident where your money goes, but we’ve seen directly where this money goes with our own eyes, and you can also see by following them at @allpowerbooks and @apfreeclinic.”

“We believe in the principles of uplifting our community through directly asking our community about its needs,” adds Jesse. “Through this we have noticed our community becoming empowered and more involved with itself. In a world bent on isolating and alienating us from ourselves and each other, we militantly combat this by not only serving our community but allowing anyone from the community who wants to, to also serve. We reject saviourism and we believe that only through unity and togetherness can people save themselves from the common problems that plague our communities. We are honoured that Stray From The Path has decided to do this and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts. The money from this shirt and vinyl variant will go towards our educational programs, our free medical clinic, our produce distributions, our school supply drives, our day care services and the many other things we offer our community. Thank you Stray for helping us keep this alive.”

‘Bread & Roses’ is taken from the quartet’s forthcoming new album, Euthanasia, released September 9th via UNFD. Euthanasia is the darkest and heaviest work of the band’s career, drawing on challenging circumstances to create a record that pulls no punches sonically or lyrically.

STRAY FROM THE PATH – ‘Bread & Roses’ ft. Jesse Barnett (Official Visualiser)<

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To mark the upcoming release of ‘Euthanasia’, the band have announced a celebratory tour of intimate album release shows for October.

Speaking of tour, guitarist, Tom Williams, says We are stoked to return back to the UK and mainland Europe to do some small and intimate album release shows for our new record, ‘Euthanasia’. By the time we get there, it will be almost three years since we’ve been back. We’ve dropped ‘Guillotine’ and ‘III’ and our UK/EU people have been wanting us back ASAP, I’m glad we can get back there for them. We’re bringing with us a brand new album, two amazing up and coming bands in Vatican and Guilt Trip, and three years of too much time spent away from some of our favourite places on earth.”

The tour sees the band play the following venues:

OCTOBER 2022
11 HANNOVER, DE – Music Zentrum
12 DRESDEN, DE – Chemiefabrik
13 SCHWEINFURT, DE – Alter Stattbahnhof
14 KARLSRUHE, DE – Die Stadtmitte
15 ESSEN, DE – Crowdsalat Festival *SFTP only
16 ENDSCHEDE, NL – Metropool
17 BRIGHTON, UK – Patterns
18 NEWCASTLE, UK – The Cluny
19 EDINBURGH, UK – The Mash House
20 BRISTOL, UK – The Fleece
21 SHEFFIELD, UK – The Foundry
22 LONDON, UK – The Dome

Stray From The Path have been bringing their charged-up hardcore fury and politically outspoken lyricism to the masses for the better part of two decades, aiming to be the kind of band that can be a gateway to both heavy music and radical ideas. While the long-running group shows no signs of slowing down, Euthanasia was by no means an easy record to make. Stray From The Path found themselves in a fractured state due to the pandemic, an ocean of distance, and even a literal broken back, resulting in an album that reflects the grimmer personal and global circumstances. Produced/engineered by Will Putney (Knocked Loose, Body Count, Every Time I Die), Euthanasia is clearly the work of a more weathered and visceral era of Stray From The Path–the tremendous riffs and hip-hop-meets-hardcore vocal cadences are still there, but this time they’re accompanied by an apocalyptic mood that draws the listener in and doesn’t let go.

Euthanasia track list:
1. Needful Things
2. May You Live Forever
3. III
4. Guillotine
5. Chest Candy
6. Bread & Roses feat. Jesse Barnett
7. Law Abiding Citizen
8. The Salt In Your Spit
9. Neighborhood Watch
10. Ladder Work

Pre-Orders: https://sftp.orcd.co/euthanasia

BIOGRAPHY:

Stray From The Path have been unleashing their furious blend of hardcore aggression and outspoken socio-political lyricism for over a decade, striving to be the kind of band that can offer an entry point to both heavy music and radical ideas, and achieving an impressive level of longevity in the process. Now their latest album, Euthanasia, finds the NY/UK-based group in significantly darker territory. Fractured by unprecedented circumstances, physical distance, and even a literal broken back–Stray From The Path managed to turn these challenges into their most ferocious and compelling record to date.

It’s easy to understand why Stray From The Path–guitarist Tom Williams, vocalist Drew Dijorio, bassist Anthony Altamura and drummer Craig Reynolds, have a grimmer outlook, Euthanasia comes from a place of personal and external frustration for the band members. “We were watching the world fall apart, stuck at home, not able to tour–which was the least of the problems of course, but we were just starting to feel deflated,” Williams says. “Sometimes I would hit up Craig with a riff and he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to play drums anymore, or he would send me drum parts and I’d be like, ‘I haven’t even touched the guitar in two months.’” Reynolds agrees that things were looking bleak, adding, “I was in a really bad place personally, and with no jobs, no shows, no nothing–I was just miserable.” As so many did during the peak of the pandemic, Reynolds and Williams turned to the internet to bridge the gap of interpersonal connection, and to try to find the creative spark again.

“Tom convinced me to try streaming on Twitch,” explains Reynolds. “I started playing drums on there and from the very first stream I just immediately remembered why I love doing this. Something about being able to interact with an audience again really reignited the fire in my belly for playing.” Williams soon began playing guitar on streaming as well, and it wasn’t long before the two had built a following on the platform. “We started to get the idea that maybe it would be interesting to let people watch us try and write a new record,” he says. “Craig would wake up in the UK, stream himself working on new drum parts for me, then I’d wake up and start messing with what he’d sent. We even had people throwing out ideas in the chat.” Slowly but surely an album began to come together, with an unexpected community of fans along for the ride. “It was really cool for people to see us trying things,” Reynolds says. “Even if it didn’t get used or we made mistakes, the chat was always really positive.” 

This unusual writing process was creatively revitalising, but the pandemic and distance weren’t the only roadblocks to making Euthanasia. Right before the band were set to return to the studio with longtime collaborator Will Putney, Reynolds suffered another massive setback: “I was in London getting my visa sorted so I could go to the studio the next month, and I fell off an embankment and broke my back.” The injury instantly derailed all studio plans and left the band in yet another purgatory while Reynolds worked to get back into playing condition. “It was the most minor way you can break your back, but it’s still breaking your back. I was mobile but I couldn’t twist,” he explains. “Luckily, a former drum student of mine helped me get into physio ahead of schedule. I probably ended up playing sooner than I should have but that was the situation.” When all four members of Stray From The Path finally convened together with Putney, it had been just shy of two years since they’d last been in the same room.

The resulting album is clearly the work of a more weathered and visceral Stray From The Path, as evidenced by Euthanasia’s ominous opener, ‘Needful Things.’  “That was the first song we wrote,” explains Williams. “Craig sent me that crazy drum beat and it took me a really long time to write something to it, but eventually I landed on this evil sounding riff and that really set the tone.” The song explodes with mind-bogglingly heavy guitars and Reynold’s impossibly intricate drumming, as Dijorio’s instantly recognisable voice–equal parts hip-hop-influenced cadence and biting hardcore roar–spits out a rejection of the ultra-capitalist system that creates so much human suffering. “This system wants people to fail,” says Williams. “There’s people who don’t even have the most basic things they need to live and then people in positions of power who just keep making it harder and harder. Sometimes you have to be willing to give up a little bit to make sure other people have what they need, but there’s a lot of people who aren’t willing to do that.” 

Rarely offering the listener a chance to catch their breath, Euthanasia rips through track after track of sinister riffs, gut-shaking bass, and powerhouse drumming that defies both reality and the seriousness of Reynold’s injury. Dijorio manages to sound unhinged throughout, while still providing genuine hooks amongst all of the aggression and no-punches-pulled lyrics. Many of the songs seek to shine a spotlight on elements of modern life that have become disturbingly normalised, like the insidiousness of copaganda (‘III’), the predatory tactics of military recruiters in the United States (‘Chest Candy’), or the unmitigated greed of major corporations (‘Guillotine’).

But Euthanasia doesn’t deal exclusively in vitriol. On mid-album standout ‘Bread & Roses.‘ the band teams with Stick To Your Guns vocalist Jesse Barnett to stretch their creativity in a different direction. “This song was inspired by people, like Jesse, who do mutual aid work and make sacrifices in their own lives for the betterment of their communities,” explains Williams. “We knew we wanted to have him on the track, and it ended up being the first time we’ve ever had clean singing on a Stray song.” The unexpectedly melodic guitar work of the song’s verses builds up to a tidal wave chorus powered by Barnett’s soaring harmonies; it’s a glimmer of sonic brightness that fittingly matches the song’s plea for compassion in an increasingly selfish world. The respite doesn’t last long, however, as Euthanasia hurtles through vicious tracks like ‘Law Abiding Citizen’ and ‘The Salt In Your Spit’–the former a groove-laden airing of grievances aimed at countless unpunished societal bad actors, while the latter interweaves spaced-out dynamics with Dijorio’s vein-bulging condemnation of political complacency.

The album comes to a close with ‘Ladder Work,’ which is a descent into some of the bleakest and most intense territory Stray From The Path have ever entered. Clocking in at a sprawling six and a half minutes, the track churns and twists from discomfortingly quiet atmospherics into walls of distortion, all blending with turntable gymnastics provided by Vein.fm’s Benno Levine. It’s a fittingly apocalyptic ending to a record that takes a hard look at the many missed opportunities to steer towards a better and more equitable world. “Over the pandemic there was this brief moment where it kind of seemed like there could have been a turning point,” says Williams. “It seemed like something could have changed. But instead sometimes it just feels like it’s the end of the world. This song was coming from that place of frustration, the feeling that maybe everything is so messed up that we need to scrap it and try again.” As the song’s final towering breakdown slowly fades into the sound of roaring flames, the only option is to hit play again, and start building something new from the ashes.

OTHER UPCOMING LIVE DATES:

w/ The Devil Wears Prada
AUGUST 2022
04 Milwaukee, WI – The Rave
05 Detroit, MI – Majestic
06 Columbus, OH – Kemba Live!
07 Pittsburgh, PA – Mr. Smalls
09 Baltimore, MD – Sound Stage
10 Reading, PA – Reverb
11 New York,  NY – Irving Plaza
12 Boston, MA – Paradise
13 Montreal, QC – Corona
14 Toronto, ON – Danforth Music Hall
16 Grand Rapids, MI – Elevation
17 Chicago, IL – House of Blues
18 Kansas City, MO – Truman
19 Denver, CO – Oriental Theatre
20 Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex
21 Boise, ID – Knitting Factory
23 Seattle, WA – El Corazon
24 Portland, OR – Hawthorne
25 Sacramento, CA – Goldfield Trading Post
26 Los Angeles, CA – Regent
27 Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
28 Mesa, AZ – Nile Theatre
30 San Antonio, TX – Vibes
31 Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall

SEPTEMBER 2022
01 Dallas, TX – South Side Music Hall
02 Memphis, TN – Growlers
03 St. Louis, MO – Red Flag
04 Ft. Wayne, IN – Piere’s
06 Nashville, TN – Eastside Bowl
07 Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
09 Tampa, FL – The Orpheum
10 Columbia, SC – The Senate
11 Danville, VA – Blue Ridge Festival

(w/ Beartooth and Motionless In White)
MARCH 2023

09 Frankfurt, DE – Jahrhunderthalle
10 Zurich, CH – Volkhaus
11 Luxembourg, LU – Den Atelier
12 Paris, FR – Le Cabaret Sauvage
14 Glasgow, UK – Barrowland Ballroom
17 Manchester, UK – Victoria Warehouse
18 Birmingham, UK – O2 Academy Birmingham
19 London, UK – O2 Academy Brixton
21 Tilburg, NL – 013
23 Cologne, DE – Palladium
24 Munich, DE – Zenith
25 Vienna, AT – Gasometer
28 Brussels, BE – Ancienne Belgique
29 Stuttgart, DE – Porsche Arena
30 Hamburg, DE – Sporthalle
31 Leipzig, DE – Hause Auensee

APRIL 2023
01 Berlin, DE – Columbiahalle