Arrows
Red Fang are known for two things: highly infectious stoner-rock jams and hilarious music videos directed by Whitey McConnaughy. The band’s fifth album, *Arrows*, combines both—and has the added bonus of being named after a song that’s actually on the album. “We had a very, very, very long email chain about different ideas we all had, and we couldn’t settle on a title,” bassist/vocalist Aaron Beam tells Apple Music. “Eventually, we ended up talking about the fact that so many of our records have been named after songs on other albums of our own. What if we just named this album after a song on the album? And so, *Arrows* just seemed like the obvious choice.” Below, Beam discusses each track. **Take It Back** “This is a weird-sounding thing that \[guitarist\] Bryan \[Giles\] made when he first started learning how to make recordings on his computer, but I love the mood of it. It was just him, and it was a detuned guitar for the bass sound. In its original formation, it was longer, but we cut it in half and ended the record with what was originally the first half of this, if that makes any sense. So, it’s like bookends—and it’s definitely less structured than a typical Red Fang song.” **Unreal Estate** “This is almost a one-riff song. All of the different versions that you hear are just modified versions of the main riff. When I originally wrote it, it was much faster and had way more notes in it. It was a kind of complicated, dorky prog rock/thrash metal song. We started playing it much slower and simpler in practice so everyone could latch onto it and decided that was actually way better.” **Arrows** “I wrote the main riff for this a long time ago—about three years before I figured out the rest of the song. Then I just woke up one morning at like 4 am, went straight to the practice space, and Frankensteined it together after years of banging my head against the wall. In true Whitey McConnaughy fashion, the video he made for this song is totally unrelated to the lyrical content, which is kind of about a struggle between two sides of someone’s personality. One side is trying to just deal with s\*\*t and see the positive, while the other side is more depressed and prone to self-medication.” **My Disaster** “This was an accidental composition. \[Guitarist\] David \[Sullivan\] had this riff I really loved, and we threw it together in the studio with a riff I had, just to see if something would happen. So, you can hear the last chorus get kind of cut in half by this cymbal-heavy drum part, because we didn’t know what the singing was going to be at the time we recorded the music. Bryan wrote the lyrics for this, and I think it has a lot to do with all the yelling back and forth between the left and right, and people just refusing to really listen to each other at all.” **Two High** “Bryan is the master of wordplay in the band, and he came up with this title. There’s a lyric in the song that goes, ‘Too high to try.’ It’s another substance abuse song about giving up on making your life better, because you’re too high or too drunk or whatever. But of course, Bryan changed it to t-w-o. I feel like this is one of two songs on the record that have the most old-school Red Fang feel to them. We could’ve written this song 15 years ago and it would’ve fit in with what we were writing back then.” **Anodyne** “This is another Bryan song, and the bass part does this weird loop thing that’s kind of sneaky. Lyrically, I think it’s centered around the definition of ‘anodyne,’ which is something that’s like a pain reliever, but it’s also something that, colloquially, is something that’s kind of bland and boring. I can’t totally speak for it, but I think whatever he’s talking about, it’s just a bunch of inoffensive, boring s\*\*t.” **Interop-Mod** “There’s not much to say about this. It’s an interlude named after the keyboard that was used to make it.” **Fonzi Scheme** “\[Drummer\] John Sherman came up with this song title. I was talking to Bryan and David about how my bass was tuned down to A when I wrote the main riff for this. John was like, ‘Aaay…’ like The Fonz would say. Hence, ‘Fonzi Scheme.’ We also added some strings to this one, and Bryan had a lot of ideas and inspiration for the sisters who came in and did the string parts.” **Days Collide** “This song kind of typifies the Red Fang writing process, in that in rare cases things are easy and obvious, but generally that’s not the case. One or the other of us just knows somewhere deep inside that there is a better solution to make the song right, and we just need time to do it. In this case, it took me about six months to come up with the right bass part. And about two weeks ago, I realized that what I came up with is almost exactly the same bassline as ‘Forgot About Dre.’ The notes are slightly different, but it’s the same pattern.” **Rabbits in Hives** “David wrote the music to this about five years ago, and I always loved the way the song jumps back and forth between two really different fields. The first part is like this half-step thing, and then it goes into a weird kind of Suicidal Tendencies shift to the real caveman mosh part. This is another one that’s similar to ‘My Disaster’ in that we decided to record it before we even knew what the singing parts would be, just to see if it would end up sounding cool.” **Why** “About eight years ago, we got asked to do a song for a Jim Henson Productions compilation covering songs from *Fraggle Rock*. I loved that show when I was a kid, so we dug through some old episodes and found this kind of upsetting and melancholy song called ‘Why.’ Then, I actually took this very old song that I’d written for an old band of mine that had already broken up and put the lyrics from the *Fraggle Rock* song to it. But no one heard that compilation, so we decided to rewrite the lyrics and release it ourselves, because the music and melody are all mine—and now this version has original lyrics, too.” **Dr. Owl** “For me, the most interesting thing about this song is that some of it was cut together in the studio after we finished recording, so we never actually played it live the way you hear it on the record. We just started practicing again at the beginning of 2021 because of COVID concerns, so we decided to learn the song the way you hear it. The first day back, we spent a bunch of time working on it. Then I drove home, parked right across the street from where I live, and the car in front of me had a vanity license plate that said ‘Dr. Owl.’” **Funeral Coach** “I was driving down the freeway and saw a car that said ‘funeral coach’ on it. The first thing I thought of was the other kind of coach—somebody who’s coaching people on how sad to be, or when to start crying at a funeral. The song has nothing to do with anything like that, though. I think Bryan wrote the opening riff, like, 12 or 13 years ago, and we’ve been trying to turn it into a song ever since. We finally just got sick of not putting that riff out, so here it is.”
RED FANG return with their highly anticipated new album, Arrows! Their first album in four years, everyone's favorite beer-crushing, zombie-killing, air-guitar-contest-judging metal heroes are back in action, doing what they do best- AND MORE. “This record feels more like Murder The Mountains to me than any record we’ve done before or since,” bassist/vocalist Aaron Beam ventures. “It doesn’t sound like that record, but Murder the Mountains was us doing whatever the fuck we wanted, and that’s what this is, too.” Arrows was recorded at Halfling Studios in the band’s hometown of Portland, OR, with longtime collaborator Chris Funk, producer of Murder The Mountains and 2013’s Whales and Leeches. “Chris is a major influencer as far as the weird ambient stuff in between the songs and the creepy incidental noises within the songs,“ guitarist Bryan Giles points out. “I think he definitely creates an added layer of atmosphere that we wouldn’t have otherwise.” Arrows is also a proper title track, which is new territory for the band. “This is the first time we’ve named an album after a song that’s actually on the album,” Beam explains. “We have other albums that are named after songs of ours that are not on those albums. So this time we’re really fucking with you because we didn’t fuck with you.” Similarly, fans might not believe what the song “Arrows” is partially about. “If you’re confused by some of the lyrics to the song, that makes sense,” Beam explains. “But it makes reference to meditation. I started meditating six years ago, but I can only do it when I’m not feeling too anxious. So, when I don’t need it, that’s when I can do it.” Elsewhere, “Fonzi Scheme” was named after legendary Happy Days cool guy Arthur Fonzarelli—if only because it’s in the key of his famous catchphrase, “Aaay.” Producer Chris Funk came up with the idea of bringing in string players from the Portland Cello Project to class up the track. Meanwhile, the opening riff of closer “Funeral Coach” was written 11 years ago. But it took until recently for the song to blossom into its full double-entendre glory. “I was driving around and I saw a hearse that said ‘funeral coach services’ on the back,” Beam explains. “So the first thing that popped into my head was a dude with a headset and a clipboard going, ‘Alright, dudes—more tears! Five minutes in is when the tears are critical, or no one’s gonna believe that anyone cares that this person died.’” In a nod to tradition, Arrows will be available in formats that include all the drums, bass, guitars and vocals. But it could’ve gone another way. “Our original idea was to release the album with no vocals or guitar solos,” Beam explains. “If you want the guitar solos, it’s an extra five bucks. If you want the vocals, it’s an extra ten bucks. So basically people should feel lucky that we didn’t do that. You get to buy the whole thing altogether.” RED FANG think of it as a generous display of gratitude toward their fans. “Yeah,” says Sherman, “Thank you for buying our album, you lucky bastards.”
Portland, Oregon quartet RED FANG have established themselves as one metal's more engaging acts. The infectious stoner metal contained on a trilogy of killer full-length records, starting with 2011's "Murder the Mountains" and ending with 2016's "Only Ghosts", coalesced with energetic live performan...
Jack Press reviews the brand new album from stoner rockers Red Fang! Read his review of 'Arrows' right here on Distorted Sound!
A review of Arrows by Red Fang, available worldwide on June 4th via Relapse Records.
Arrows by Red Fang album review by Gregory Adams. The Portland, Oregon band's release comes out on May 28, 2021 via Relapse Records