Experimental heavy rockers Iwrestledabearonce are almost finished with tracking their forthcoming third studio album, which is due out later this year. It will be their first with new frontwoman Courtney LaPlante, who joined the band with only a 24-hours notice in between shows on the band’s run with Warped Tour in 2012. The group is working in its band-compound/recording studio in Los Angeles, with guitarist-programmer Steven Bradley producing, engineering, mixing, and mastering the album himself.

“Well damn! After another two years of non-stop touring, some unexpected twists, and getting to visit some new and amazing places, we’re finally back in the studio working on full length number three!,” Bradley says.  “I’ve 100% never been this excited about an IWABO album, because it feels like we’ve finally reigned in ‘our sound’ even further and really hit a stride in terms of songwriting. We’ve always admired bands like Deftones, Cynic, Thrice, Glassjaw, Mr. Bungle, Dredg, Cephalic Carnage, The Mars Volta, etc. because they’ve never made the same album twice, and aren’t scared to keep evolving while still maintaining their signature styles. Obviously, I’d never compare us to the greatness of those bands, but, in keeping with that mentality, we’ve progressed a bit more and put together our best collection of songs so far.”

Below, Bradley and LaPlante fill us in some more on their forthcoming new album.

REVOLVER This record will be your third release on Century Media Records. Has this recording process been different with now a new vocalist? If so, how?
STEVEN BRADLEY Working with Courtney has been incredible! She’s written so many good hooks and her vocal range is just insane. Also, she’s amazing at layering harmonies on top of each other that all sound incredible. I think people are in for a shock in the best way possible, because she absolutely killed it on this album.

Courtney, as the new vocalist, you are working on your first album with the band. Do you feel there are some heavy expectations for this release?
COURNEY LAPLANTE I think the expectations from our audience are high, and I am confident we are going to exceed those expectations. Once we release a song, I think the people who support this band will accept me and really get on board with our sound and the tone of this album. I am not nervous, but I am extremely anxious to get this new material out. It is very exciting for all of us!

What should fans be expecting with this new album?
BRADLEY I think fans of our band gave up on trying to anticipate our next move a long time ago, which is honestly the point of Iwrestledabearonce! Some bands are pigeonholed into one certain style, whereas I feel like we can cover any ground we want and people won’t be surprised. As far as this album, I definitely feel like we’ve put together the best songs of our career. There are just so many more memorable riffs and vocal hooks on this album than on anything else we’ve done. That’s not to say that there aren’t also some of the weirdest and heaviest moments of our career as well, but I really feel like we finally stepped up to the plate and put together 12 great songs, not just collections of riffs and ideas.

Should we expect to hear new music on the All Stars tour this summer? What new songs are you the most excited to play live?
BRADLEY Definitely! And damn, that’s tough… Depends on my mood and what tour! This album covers a lot of ground, and I have no idea what’s going to be the most fun track to play live yet. I can say for sure though that we would all love to play this entire album start to finish live at some point, and that’s not something we’ve ever considered with our previous albums.

What are your main goals for this album?
BRADLEY Hopefully to open up some new people to our band, and in turn, to other styles of music. We’d love to make as many new friends as humanly possible. Anddddd I suppose doing another world tour would be awesome as well! Oh, and it would be great to be a billionaire…

• All That Remains – A War You Cannot Win
• Anaal Nathrakh – Vanitas
• Bane – The Acausal Fire
• Corrosion of Conformity – Eye for an Eye reissue
• Davey Suicide – Put Your Trust In Suicide EP
• Doomsday – Doomsday
• Doro – Raise Your Fist
• Dragged Into Sunlight – Widowmaker
• Geoff Tate – Kings & Thieves
• Graveyard – Lights Out
• HIM – XX: Two Decades of Love Metal
• Isis – Temporal
• Iwrestledabearonce – A Beary Scary Movie DVD
• Megadeth – Countdown To Extinction: 20th Anniversary Edition
• Otep – Sounds Like Armageddon
• The Seeking – Yours Forever
• Strife – Witness a Rebirth
• Tiamat – The Scarred People
• Underoath – Anthology 1999-2013
• While She Sleeps – This Is the Six

Iwrestledabearonce just played their first-ever shows in Guadalajara and Mexico City and received an overwhelming response from fans. Both shows were sold out and featured mosh pits and crowds singing along every night.

To highlight the dates, Iwrestledabearonce has released a performance video for their track “I’m Gonna Shoot” off their most recent album, Ruining It For Everybody. The footage used in the video is taken from the recent sold out dates in Mexico.

Iwrestledabearonce will perform on the Ernie Ball Stage on the full Vans Warped Tour. For Warped Tour attendees in San Diego, fans have the chance to go bowling with the band and raise money for cancer research at the same time. More details are available here.

Following the Warped dates, Iwrestledabearonce will play Canadian festival Heavy MTL in Montreal. A full list of dates can be seen below.

Vans Warped Tour Dates:

6/16/12 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Utah State Fairpark
6/17/12 – Denver, CO @ Sports Authority Field at Mile High
6/20/12 – Las Vegas, NV @ Luxor Festival Lot
6/21/12 – Irvine, CA @ Orange County Great Park
6/22/12 – Pomona, CA @ Pomona Fairplex
6/23/12 – San Francisco, CA @ AT&T Park
6/24/12 – Ventura, CA @ Seaside Park
6/27/12 – Chula Vista, CA @ Cricket Wireless Amphitheater
6/28/12 – Phoenix, AZ @ Camel Back Park
6/29/12 – Las Cruces, NM @ NMSU Practice Field
6/30/12 – San Antonio, TX @ AT&T Center
7/1/12 – Houston, TX @ Reliant Park – Main Street Lot
7/3/12 – Dallas, TX @ Gexa Energy Pavilion
7/5/12 – Maryland Heights, MO @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
7/6/12 – Auburn Hills, MI @ The Palace of Auburn Hills
7/7/12 – Tinley Park, IL @ First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
7/8/12 – Shakopee, MN @ Canterbury Park
7/9/12 – Bonner Springs , KS @ Sandstone Amphitheatre
7/10/12 – Indianapolis , IN @ Klipsch Music Center
7/11/12 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center
7/12/12 – Burgettstown, PA @ First Niagara Pavilion
7/13/12 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
7/14/12 – Montreal, ON @ Parc Jean Drapeau
7/15/12 – Toronto, ON @ Molson Canada Amphitheatre
7/17/12 – Darien Center, NY @ Darien Lake PAC
7/18/12 – Scranton, PA @ Toyota Pavilion
7/19/12 – Mansfield, MA @ Comcast Center
7/20/12 – Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Bank Center
7/21/12 – Uniondale, NY @ Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
7/22/12 – Hartford, CT @ The Comcast Theatre
7/24/12 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion
7/25/12 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Farm Bureau Live
7/26/12 – Atlanta, GA @ Aaron’s Amphitheater
7/27/12 – Orlando, FL @ Central Florida Fairgrounds
7/28/12 – West Palm Beach, FL @ Cruzan Amphitheatre
7/29/12 – St. Petersburg, FL @ Vinoy Park
7/30/12 – Charlotte, NC @ Charlotte Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
7/31/12 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
8/1/12 – Milwaukee, WI @ Marcus Amphitheatre
8/4/12 – Redmond, WA @ Marymoor Park
8/5/12 – Portland, OR @ Rose Quarter Riverfront
8/12/12 – Montreal, Canada @ Heavy MTL

Killswitch vocalist Howard Jones spoke of the band’s anticipation to return to their roots at the festival. “Yup, trouble’s brewing. It’s been great to have time off, but now it¹s back to business. All the guys in Killswitch Engage are truly excited to be playing NEMHF again. It’s like old times: hanging out with your friends, but they have mustaches now. Come on out, bring a friend and let’s make some sweat!”

The Black Dahlia Murder frontman Trevor Strnad was similarly enthused. It has always been a huge pleasure to play New England Metal and Hardcore Fest… I can’t thank them enough for involving us again. Some of my fondest drunken memories are from NEMHF… I’m looking to rack up a few more!!!  Come out and bang your heads til they fall off. I’ll meet you by the sausage man!”

Other bands appearing at the event, which occurs on the weekend of April 20-22, include Every Time I Die, iwrestledabearonce, the Acacia Strain, Protest the Hero, and All Shall Perish. Tickets go on sale on December 16. For more information, click here.

Upon the announcement of the tour, Of Mice & Men vocalist Austin Carlisle and drummer Valentino Arteaga, collectively shared their anticipation:

“We’re very happy to announce Of Mice & Men headlining the Monster Energy Outbreak tour! We couldn’t be more excited to team up with such a phenomenal company and lineup of bands as well! We think this tour will be much more of an experience rather than just coming out to another show, so do not miss this tour!”

Of Mice & Men will also be providing an exclusive insight into all the action on the tour, both onstage and offstage, with their tour diary. Check back to Revolvermag.com during the run for regular postings from the headliners.

Revolver and That’s Outrageous! are also giving one lucky fan the opportunity to win two tickets to attend their local stop on the Monster Energy Outbreak Tour by entering our contest here.

Monster Energy Outbreak Tour dates:

The Monster Energy Outbreak tour, which aims to showcase upcoming rock talent, will play in 27 cities, kicking off with San Francisco on October 26.

REVOLVER What’s “Deodorant Can’t Fix Ugly” about?
STEVEN BRADLEY The lyrics are all about organized religion and questioning things as opposed to following them blindly. Musically, it’s all about covering a shit-ton of genres and then finished up with amazing gospel choir guest vocals!

Which part of it did you come up with first?
Truth be told, one of the riffs from that song is something I wrote at John ’s house literally a decade ago! Maybe even longer, because I’m 26 and I’m pretty sure I wrote that hanging out there before I could even drive! It’s the riff underneath the vocals, “Why should we believe in something we can’t see.” I totally forgot about it and somehow remembered it one night, and we decided to throw it in there because somehow it was never used before. The rest of the song came together while we were finishing up writing for the new album, and it just has a few ideas that we’ve never used before in songs and wanted to make sure got put on this record.

Was this an easy song to write?
Definitely an easy one… It poured out of us really, really quickly one night. I have no clue why, but sometimes we get lucky and it works like that!

What sort of feedback have you gotten on this song so far?
Well as of right now, only our friends and management/label have heard the song… and obviously they’re all liars and have told us they love it. Honestly though, the choir part at the end is one of my favorite parts on the new album and is something way different, even for us, and I really hope people think it’s as great as we do.

What’s the worst smell that’s ever passed your nose?
The simple fact that you have to ask means that you have never stepped foot in our van. I’m pretty sure someone ripped up the upholstery, put down a layer of dog shit, and reupholstered it. Pretty impressive, really!

Iwrestledabearonce Tour Dates

Date City Venue

The All Stars Tour:

7/22                 McAllen, TX                 Las Palmas Racepark
7/23                 San Antonio, TX          Backstage Live
7/24                 Dallas, TX                    The Palladium
7/26                 Louisville, KY              Expo Five
7/27                 Cleveland, OH             Agora Ballroom
7/28                 Chicago, IL                  Congress Theatre
7/29                 Detroit, MI                    Royal Oak Theatre
7/30                 Milwaukee, WI             The Rave
7/31                 St. Paul, MN                 Station 4 Outdoors (Lowertown Music Festival)
8/2                   Toronto, ON                 Sound Academy
8/3                   Montreal, QC               Olympia
8/4                   Reading, PA                Eagle Theatre at The Sov Center
8/5                   Poughkeepsie, NY       Civic Center
8/6                   Fitchburg, MA              Marriott Trade Center
8/7                   Sayreville, NJ              Starland Ballroom
8/9                   Baltimore, MD              Sonar
8/10                 Richmond, VA             The National
8/11                 Charlotte, NC               The Fillmore
8/12                 Myrtle Beach, SC        House Of Blues
8/13                 Orlando, FL                 Plaza Live
8/14                 Pensacola, FL             Seville Quarter Party Plaza
8/17                 Tucson, AZ                 The Rialto Theatre
8/18                 Scottsdale, AZ                        Venue of Scottsdale
8/19                 San Diego, CA Soma
8/20                 Anaheim, CA               The Grove
8/21                 Las Vegas, NV           Rock The Block
8/23                 San Francisco, CA      Regency Ballroom
8/26                 Seattle, WA                 Showbox SoDo
8/27                 Portland, OR                Roseland Theatre

Solo Dates:

9/16                 Anchorage, AK           Club Millennium
9/17                 Anchorage, AK           Chilkoot Charlie’s