Enterprise Earth's Surprise EP: New Song and Video, Lamb of God Cover, Track by Track | Page 2 | Revolver

Enterprise Earth's Surprise EP: New Song and Video, Lamb of God Cover, Track by Track

Tech-death upstarts flex skills, honor influences on 'Foundation of Bones'

Spokane, Washington-based tech-metal outfit Enterprise Earth have got a surprise for you: a new five-song EP released today (June 19th) via Entertainment One. The short-form follow-up to last year's critically acclaimed Luciferous full-length, Foundation of Bones is a gloriously crushing stop-gap featuring a new song and its instrumental version, an acoustic cut and two vicious covers: of Lamb of God's iconic "Now You've Got Something to Die For" and Necrophagist's extreme-metal shredathon "Fermented Offal Discharge." To top it all off, the band has teamed with Revolver to unveil the music video for the new song and title track (watch above), and for an exclusive track-by-track breakdown of the EP (read below).

Foundation of Bones is available digitally now. In observance of Juneteenth, the group will be donating 25 percent of all webstore sales made today, June 19th, to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In addition, eOne Heavy will be donating all Bandcamp revenue from the EP to the same fund.

"Foundation of Bones was a spur of the moment idea that quickly came to fruition," says guitarist Gabriel Mangold. "After returning home from our canceled tour, we began writing and finishing up new material. While listening back to some new demos and being stoked on the quality of the mixes, we thought, 'Fuck it. Let's give self-production a go and release an impromptu EP!' Dan [Watson] tracked vocals at home in Indianapolis. Brandon [Zackey] recorded drums with our good friend/sound engineer, Chris Ghazel, in Los Angeles. I did guitars, bass, production, and handled mixing/mastering duties in my tiny home trailer studio rig in Taos, New Mexico. After several days of tweaking, we had a mix that we were all very stoked on and felt comfortable moving forward with our first self-produced release."

"The covers were something that we had in mind for some time, and the opportunity to do this EP prompted us to take action," he continues. "Lamb of God and Necrophagist are two huge inspirations on us, so covering these tunes was a no-brainer. We experienced a ton of electric energy tracking these as they are songs that we've loved since we were kids — hopefully, we did them justice!"

Below, Mangold breaks down the EP, track by track.

1. "Foundation of Bones"
After deciding to do this impromptu EP, we began sifting through current demos for our winner. The decision was made unanimously fairly quickly. After a short, mysterious and unsettling intro, it gets straight to the point by exploding into the first chorus and doesn't let up until it's over. This song also features new sounds that we have been developing in a condensed format, namely combining modern deathcore parts and structure with thrash and death-metal influences. This sound will be expanded upon in our coming full-length.

2. "Now You've Got Something to Die For"
Lamb of God is one of our collective favorites as we all draw a significant portion of our influence from their catalog. We really wanted to do something off of Ashes of the Wake and this song seemed to check all of the boxes for us. Straightforward and to the point, this was a ton of fun to cover."

3. "Fermented Offal Discharge"
When the idea of doing some covers came up, Necrophagist was one of the first bands we considered. Like Lamb of God, they're a massive influence on all of us. We had a bit of a difficult time deciding which Necro song to cover as both albums are classic tech-death staples — and all of the songs are hard to play — but we ultimately decided on "Fermented." Again, a lot of fun to record and perform.

4. "There Is No Tomorrow" (acoustic)
Doing the acoustic rendition of this song was a last-minute addition to the EP and, boy, are we glad we went for it as recording it was somewhat of a cathartic and eye-opening experience. It was inspired by bands that have done incredible acoustic renditions of their heavy tunes, namely Alice in Chains, the Contortionist and I See Stars. Our sonic inspirations and musical expressions go much deeper than just being brutal and we wanted to express that sentiment and develop another facet of our sound. We love melody, peaks and valleys within a song, acoustic jams that take you on a journey, and most importantly, we love writing music that resonates strongly within us. "There Is No Tomorrow" is easily the most melodic and emotional song from Luciferous. If any tune from that record deserved an acoustic rendition, it would be that one. Expect more of these acoustic renditions in the future.