EPK – Sandveiss – Standing in the Fire (2024) – Out Oct 11th

EPK – Sandveiss – Standing in the Fire (2024) – Out Oct 11th

Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@]ashermediarelations[.]com

“We hope our fans will receive our new album “Standing in the Fire” well. Once again, we kind of cover different grounds musically speaking, but the core of our music is always riff-oriented with very melodic vocals and harmonies, and I think that’s what our fans expect from us. 

On a songwriting level, we like to go to “different places” on the same album, and each time, we push things a little further toward new directions while staying true to what we really are. We like to guide the listener through different kinds of emotions on the same album while of course trying to maintain a certain level of coherence and continuity. A bit like different chapters of the same book. Even the singles were chosen to demonstrate different sides of the album and different moods.

On a technical side, we tried with this album to give the listener maybe a slightly different listening experience than what we offered in the past. We wanted the sound of the band to be more textured, airy, and lively so we decided to contact one of our favorite current mixers, a guy named Karl Daniel Lidén to mix and master the album. He worked with bands like Dozer, Greenleaf, Lowrider, The Ocean Collective, and Katatonia to name a few, and we felt he was the right person to help us achieve the sound we wanted for that record.”

For fans of Black Sabbath, Mastodon, The Sword, Dozer, Baroness

Band: Sandveiss
Album Title: Standing in the Fire
Release Date: October 11th, 2024
Label:  Folivora Records
Distribution: Believe

Folivora.ca | Facebook.com/Sandveiss | Instagram.com/sandveissband 

Sandveiss.bandcamp.com/ | Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon | Deezer

“As a successor to their KILLER previous album, Scream Queen, Saboteur holds its own and shows growth from the band, both in writing and musicianship. Saboteur is not meant to be played at lower decibels.” – Doom Charts

“Sur ce nouvel album, le son propre et puissant sert à merveille des riffs ciselés et des mélodies accrocheuses. Chaque titre est une petite pépite de plaisir musical sertie dans une production jamais tape à l’œil, où les effets discrets relèvent la sauce.” – Weirdsound

“Sometimes you hear something, and it hits you so hard it automatically becomes incredibly special to you. That has been my experience with Saboteur and Sandveiss.” – Metal Nation

[Download Album Cover | Download Album Lyrics]

Band: Sandveiss
Album Title: Standing in the Fire
Release Date: October 11th, 2024
Label:  Folivora Records
Distribution: Believe

Track Listing:
1. I’ll Be Rising – 5:03
2. Standing In The Fire – 3:51
3. Wait And See – 3:26
4. No Love Here – 7:26
5. Fade (Into The Night) – 3:48
6. Gone Away – 4:53
7. These Cold Hands – 4:57
8. Bleed Me Dry – 5:42

Album Length: 39:36

Album Credits:
• All songs performed by: Luc Bourgeois (lead vocals, guitar) Shawn Rice (back vocals, guitar, keys), Maxime Moisan (bass), and Dominic Gaumond (drumkit)
• All songs written by: Luc Bourgeois
• Produced by: Luc Bourgeois, Shawn Rice
• Mixed by: Karl Daniel Lidén
• Mastered by: Karl Daniel Lidén
• Album Artwork by:
Amanda Morley (collage)
Caroline Morin (infographic)
• Member of SOCAN
• Canadian Content (MAPL)

Album and Live Band Line Up:
Luc Bourgeois (lead vocals, guitar)
Shawn Rice (back vocals, guitar, keys)
Maxime Moisan (bass)
Dominic Gaumond (drum)

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About The Album Artwork:

The album is called “Standing in the Fire”, and its artwork is a mix of “analog” collage art by Amanda Morley and graphic arts by Karo Morin. It depicts a headless person with their hands and legs tied up, standing in front of a fire. Despite its description, it doesn’t represent anything graphicly “gore” or violent but rather a state of mind related to despair, oppression, helplessness, and suffering. The fact that the person here is headless only means that those feelings and states of mind do not have a “face”. That person there can be anybody. We decided to use collage art because we love its aesthetic and also the idea of expressing something new from totally different sources that were not meant to be presented together.

About the album as a whole (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):

We like our music to follow different paths while of course trying to maintain our identity as a band. We didn’t overthink the general musical direction of the album, we just tried to write the best stuff we could. To me, every song on the record is like its own little world but within the same universe. We don’t want our band to be one-dimensional and like to open different doors while writing our music. We are music lovers with a lot of different influences and we’re not afraid to wear these influences on our sleeves.

About the lyrics, I wrote most of them during the pandemic. We’ve seen a lot of the worst in human beings during that period of time and it inspired me to write a lot. People seem to be more divided and polarized than ever. Social media have become a very toxic mess and I think are partly the reflection of a very ill society.

Track by Track (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):

I’ll be Rising:

Musically it is a blend of heavy riffing, melodic parts, and somewhat unusual time signatures for us. It gives the song a proggier feel but still has a lot of our more “usual elements”. A good balance between what we’ve always been and what’s new.

Lyrically, it’s a song about resilience, justice, and empowerment from the perspective of a survivor of rape and abuse. Anxiety, shame, depression, and the fear of not being believed. But above all this, there is an absolute need for the truth to be heard.  Sometimes, after years of silence.

Standing in the Fire:

Musically I decided with that one not only to embrace some of my earliest musical influences but to openly celebrate them. A lot of influences from the 80’s of course. Kiss, Alice Cooper, Survivor, and Scorpions but also bands from the 70s like Blue Öyster Cult, Rush, and Kansas.

Lyrically it’s a song about science deniers, propaganda, and modern-day witch hunts.

How some people let strange and nonrational beliefs enter their minds, become slaves of their own fears, and lose control over their own lives and sometimes their actions.

Wait and See:

Musically the most upbeat song on the album, the energy fits well with the urgency spoken of in the lyrics. Rather short in length (the shortest on the album) but still a lot of things are going on in the way the song unfolds.

The lyrics of the song are about some politician’s arrogance and inaction towards climate change and urgent environmental problems.

No Love Here:

The most prog-rock song on the album. The longest one, the more “developed” and unpredictable in terms of structure and sound (it is what “prog rock” is about, right?). A lot of texture and space in the music and some intricate parts I guess. Of course a lot of influences from the 70s on this one (King Crimson, Rush, Harmonium) but also some vibes influenced by more modern bands like Mastodon, Elder, or Baroness.

The lyrics were written about toxic relationships that lead to domestic violence and in this case, that unfortunately ends up with the worst possible conclusion. I wrote this as a reaction to the horrible and alarming femicides that increased during the pandemic.

Fade (Into the Night):

The music is upbeat, a straight-up rock song in its structure, maybe with some kind of hypnotic vibes to it.

The lyrics are about some narcissistic manipulators, their toxic behaviors, and their need to control other people’s lives for their own benefit and profit. Religious groups and cults, internet gurus, politicians, influencers on social media, conspiracy theorists, etc… They’re everywhere.

Gone Away:

Musically a heavy blues and hard rock-inspired song that almost feels like a shuffle. We think that one has a vibe that can remind bands like Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and Graveyard, but also bands like Boston, Whitesnake, and Thin Lizzy.

The lyrics are written more like poetry for this song. Images and reflections about many different things in my life.

These Cold Hands:

More uptempo, and heavy, but the choruses and the bridge sound more “open” and textured. One might hear some Rush influences in some rhythms parts and guitar parts, mainly the chorus-sounding open-strings that can be heard a lot in the song.

Lyrics are in fact a letter to death. How much time is left? How is it going to happen? I started to write the lyrics of that song when I heard that a friend’s mother had cancer (luckily she survived) and finished the writing not long after one of my best friends died of very aggressive cancer, a few weeks only after knowing she was ill.

Bleed Me Dry:

Musically the heaviest, most aggressive, and metal-influenced song of the album. Also, it features a new vocal approach for me in some sections of the song. More aggressive and sometimes screamed vocals, something I have never done before. The funny thing is, I was never able to properly scream prior to this. I discovered the technique by pure accident during recording sessions for this album. Since “Bleed Me Dry” was the very last song I recorded the vocals for, and since it’s the heaviest one on the record, I thought it’d be interesting to try those new-found abilities and see where it would bring the song.

Lyrics were written out of exasperation but also sadness towards the behavior and reflections of some people regarding serious social issues and critical situations. Some of them act the way they do because of huge anxiety and denying is like their self-defense mechanism. Some others are ignorant, selfish, and driven by hatred, some are sadly “broken from the start” and have been misguided early in life by people they trusted.

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Story Angles – Fun Facts

1: It turns out that all our album and EP titles start with the letter “S,” just like our band name. This was a pure coincidence until our second album when I realized that all our releases started with the same letter (Self-Titled Demo, Scream Queen, Save Us All 7″, and Saboteur). Since then, we’ve released a Sabbath cover EP titled “Sandveiss Bloody Sandveiss” and our new album called “Standing in the Fire.” We might break the cycle with future releases… or not.

2: I discovered some “fry scream” vocal techniques by pure accident while recording the last few songs of the new album. I’ve always loved the more aggressive vocal approach and style but avoided trying it for fear of damaging my vocal cords. However, while recording apart, I suddenly figured out how to do it naturally. New possibilities are unlocked!

3: The last song we recorded was the album closer, “Bleed Me Dry,” and for whatever reason, I couldn’t come up with a vocal melody I liked. The song is the heaviest on the record, played in drop A tuning, and I felt the vocals were lacking something to match the heaviness of the music. I put the song aside for a few weeks and then came back to it only after discovering that I could scream. I tried new ideas and changed the vocal approach using these newfound abilities, and this time it felt right. Sometimes one thing leads to another, and then everything falls into place.

4: We like to hide little things here and there in our recordings, such as reversed or down-pitched sounds. Sometimes this leads to a tradition: on the first album, I recorded a few screams through my guitar pickups and placed them somewhere in the music. My son did the same on the second album, and my daughter did it on the new one. Maybe our cat will do it on the next one? Who knows? Haha

5: Little fun fact, once in a while during our time on the road, Max (bass) and Dominic (drums) like to surprise Shawn (guitar) with special gifts, mostly goofy-looking hats bought at the Dollar Store, and it has become a tradition. The uglier or cheesier, the better! We always capture on camera the moments when he receives the hat and include them in the video recaps of the tour.

L-R – Dominic Gaumond (Drum), Luc Bourgeois (Vocals, Guitar),  Maxime Moisan (Bass), Shawn Rice (Guitar)

Photo Credit – Paul Di Giacomo

SANDVEISS is a Heavy Rock band from Quebec City that came to life in 2011.  Their music is heavy yet also melodic.  Their influences range from Black Sabbath, Kyuss, Tool, Mastodon etc. The band’s first album “Scream Queen” came out in 2013. In the Summer of 2015, SANDVEISS played notably at the FEQ (Plains of Abraham), opening act for High on Fire and Megadeth, and at Heavy Montreal to a very receptive crowd. Next Autumn, their album “Scream Queen” won “Heavy Album of the Year” at the GAMIQ awards.  In 2016, they released a 7” EP vinyl “Save Us All” (also nominated at the GAMIQ awards).  That paved the way to a tour in Sweden, where they played shows at the “Live at Heart” festival in Örebro.  After some changes and a long successful writing process, SANDVEISS returned in 2019 with their 2nd full release called “Saboteur”.  The year after that, they released Sandveiss Bloody Sandveiss, a tribute to Black Sabbath.

The band consists of Luc Bourgeois (lead vocals, guitar) Shawn Rice (back vocals, guitar), Maxime Moisan (bass), and Dominic Gaumond (drumkit).

Discography:
2020 – Sandveiss Bloody Sandveiss (A tribute to Black Sabbath) – EP
2019 – Saboteur – Album
2016 – Save Us All – EP
2015 – Scream Queen (Deluxe Edition) – Deluxe Album
2014 – Scream Queen – Album

Awards / Feature
GAMIQ – Awards
2015 – Scream Queen – Heavy Album of the Year (winner)
2016 – Save Us All – Metal EP/Album of the Year (nomination)
2020 – Saboteur – Metal EP/Album of the Year (nomination)
2019 – Artist of the Month – Metal March – CJLO

Shared Stage with – Megadeth, High on Fire, Fatso Jetson, Scorpion Child, Asteroid, Scott Weiland, Protest the Hero

Tours and Festivals:
2024 Planet Desert Fest Weekend (Las Vegas, USA)
2023 Canadian Music Week (Toronto)
2016 Live at Heart (Orebro, Sweden)
2015 Heavy MTL
2015 Festival d’été de Québec