ARIA-certified Australian metalcore trailblazers THE AMITY AFFLICTION — Joel Birch [vocals], Ahren Stringer [vocals, bass], Dan Brown [lead guitar], and Jon Longobardi [drums] — have shared two b-sides from their latest album Everyone Loves You… Once You Leave Them. Listen to the gritty “Midnight Train” and the contemplative banger “Don’t Wade in the Water” here and here. Both tracks are incredibly personal offerings from the band. “‘Midnight Train’ came about from Ahren just singing ‘midnight train’ in amongst some other garbage when he did the scratch track for me to get an idea of how he wanted to sing the chorus,” Birch shares. “We wrote the entire song around those two words, which wasn’t actually hard because there was some context to it. It follows an arc of my relationship with my wife, ending where we are today. We’ve known each other for 25 years and the song covers some key moments for both of us.” As for “Don’t Wade in the Water,” Birch explains, “It’s song about my mother and father and the role the church had in separating them, and then the role that the church and religion played in my later life. Obviously, it is a play on the old hymn sung by Ella Jenkins, which is a beautiful, beautiful song. I wanted to contrast that with my own personal experience, which was disenfranchising to say the least.” He continues “There is a conversation happening within the song between my mother and father which is tumultuous and emotional, with two opposing sides with two opposing ways of viewing the world, and I really feel like it was captured well with the music. Ultimately, it didn’t make the cut, but I honestly like this song as much as all the songs that made it to the record.” Everyone Loves You… Once You Leave Them is out now via Pure Noise Records. LISTEN TO MORE TAA HERE:
“Forever”
“Soak Me In Bleach”
“Catatonia”
“All My Friends Are Dead” ABOUT THE AMITY AFFLICTION:
Since emerging in 2008 on the debut Severed Ties, The Amity Affliction have served up two ARIA gold-certified albums, Youngbloods [2010] and Chasing Ghosts [2012], and earned a platinum certification from ARIA for the seminal Let the Ocean Take Me [2014]. This Could Be Heartbreak [2016] marked the band’s second consecutive Top 30 debut on the Billboard Top 200 and went gold in Australia, while Misery [2018] elevated them to new critical heights with praise from Medium, Alternative Press, The Noise, and more. To date, the group’s total stream tally has surpassed 200 million and counting. Meanwhile, The Amity Affliction sold out countless headline shows and toured alongside many genre heavyweights. Their Pure Noise Records debut, Everyone Loves You… Once You Leave Them, recorded with Misery producer Matt Squire, is out now. | 
