BIGGER ROLE
Headlining tour ‘feels great’ to Betraying The Martyrs vocalist Aaron Matts
French deathcore heavyweights Betraying The Martyrs has embarked on its first headlining tour in the United States.
“It feels great, absolutely,” vocalist Aaron Matts said. “Being on a headline tour is kind of a daunting experience. The pressure is kind of on you, so all of that is put aside by the fact that we are so excited to be back in the States again. We really love to be here. It’s great.”
The band is touring in support of its fourth fulllength album, “Rapture,” scheduled for release on Sept. 13. Audiences will hear a couple of songs from the album, on Monday, July 8 at Launchpad.
“The first album, we do what we do,” Matts said. “The second album, we kind of want to improve on that and maybe impress the fans, and then the third album is always one of those landmark albums that you’ve really got to succeed on. And this fourth album, we just kind of put those prerequisites aside, you know what, let’s just do what we feel like doing now, not trying to impress anyone. Stop trying to fit into a certain genre. We’re just trying to take everything in, all of the experiences that are happening to us, and work with that and see what comes out, and it really worked out really well.”
Betraying The Martyrs tucked themselves away from the world when
writing “Rapture” and experimented with new grooves and clean vocals.
“We locked ourselves in a secluded area on a farm for months on end and just did it,” Matts said. “We really had the time to experiment, making new sounds, kind of locking ourselves in a room, without being scared or being embarrassed by the other guys hearing what you’re doing. We just kind of let it rip in a room on our own and see what came out. There’s definitely a lot more experimental stuff in there. It’s a lot darker than anything we’ve done before. I think that really comes down to the fact of where we were when we wrote the album. It was really a creepy environment. I think we just let the dark side come out.”
The band recently released the single “Parasite” from the new album, along with an eerie video.
“I realized a lot of people battle with this internal conflict of what goes on inside your head, good thoughts and bad thoughts and this little side of yourself telling you to do bad things, good things,” Matts said. “It’s just a way for me to write about pushing bad experiences that happened in childhood aside and get a hold of my life and killing this parasite. This parasite that was taking control of my life like my past I thought was really affecting what was happening in my present and my future.”