Today 2x GRAMMY® Award-nominated band Rival Sons drop “Guillotine.” Listen HERE. “Guillotine” heralds Rival Sons’ hugely anticipated new album, DARKFIGHTER, arriving everywhere via Low Country Sound/Atlantic Records on Friday, June 2. Pre-orders/pre-saves are available now HERE.
“To get to the other side of a seemingly unsurmountable struggle, how deep is your commitment?” asks Jay Buchanan. “Guillotine hit hard right around the crucial halfway point of making the record. By then we’d gained serious ground into an unknown creative space for the band and this one is the sound of a malaria fever dream after months of hacking through the jungle.”
The band has also just announced the following new North American tour dates:
August 11 – House of Blues – Las Vegas, NV
August 26 – Corona Theatre – Montreal, QC
August 27 – State Theatre – Portland, ME
September 6 – Roxian Theatre – Pittsburgh, PA
September 7 – Mill & Mine – Knoxville, TN
Rival Sons will mark the arrival of DARKFIGHTER with a truly epic live schedule, including the 30 date UK/EU DARKFIGHTER tour and a special guest run on Smashing Pumpkins’ “The World Is a Vampire” Summer 2023 North American Tour, also featuring Stone Temple Pilots and Interpol.
Tickets for all announced dates are on sale now. For compete details and ticket information, please visit www.rivalsons.com.
Full UK/ European tour dates below.
Scott Holiday commented: “We’re finally able to come back to you and bring you NEW music! Music that has been firmly situated in our hearts. Nothing makes me happier than to think about experiencing DARKFIGHTER and LIGHTBRINGER together and making them into something entirely new and different every night. Let’s make something symbiotic, alive, that we’ll want to remember forever!”
Bird In The Hand
Last month, Rival Sons released the third visual instalment supporting the current European single “Bird In The Hand”. This latest video tells the story of a double-cross and a heist gone wrong, starring the band themselves as a gang of crooks. It’s a caper that results in explosive consequences. Jay Buchanan as Preacher throws dynamite verse in the Nobody Wants To Die video, the first single from DARKFIGHTER, from their own vintage cars; (Scott’s own 1956 Pontiac Chieftain and Jay’s 1982 Mercedes 300SD) while stunt-driving across the California dessert. In the latest video for new hit single Bird In The Hand the explosive consequences are contextualised with the video adding another vignette to the trilogy. With a large dose of humour and a devil-may-care attitude Bird In The Hand, directed by Kurt Kubicek, and written by Jay Buchanan and Scott Holiday, is a prequel for the deadly single, “Nobody Wants To Die“ (dir. Eli Sokhn) and “Rapture“ (dir. Kurt Kubicek), both streaming now at the official Rival Sons YouTube channel HERE.
Jay Buchanan comments: “It’s been a great time writing and producing these videos along with great directors and crew. With video production we’re really at that sweet spot where we don’t know the rules so we’re not afraid of breaking them. We’ll see where it goes from here.”
“Nobody Wants To Die” was hailed by Rolling Stone as “hard-charging,” adding “The video has Kill Bill grindhouse vibes for days and is a literal blast.” “It would be cliché to say it’s been worth the wait,” wrote Guitar World, “but the phrase applies: ‘Nobody Wants to Die’ has enough high-gain riffage and classic rock fretboard throwdowns to more than make up for Rival Sons’ absence.“
DARKFIGHTER and LIGHTBRINGER
DARKFIGHTER (out June 2nd) will be accompanied by companion volume, LIGHTBRINGER, arriving later this year. Both produced by long-time collaborator and 8x GRAMMY® Award-winner Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell). The two new LPs marks the first new music from Rival Sons in more than four years, following 2019’s critically acclaimed, GRAMMY® Award-nominated sixth studio album, FERAL ROOTS.
“In comparison to our previous records, we certainly took our time both writing and recording this collection,” says Rival Sons vocalist Jay Buchanan. “When we set out, the intention was mostly to dig as deep as possible. Even in the beginning before the body had formed, we agreed to throw the map away and chop our way through the woods to make a new path. Then lockdown hit and it felt like the whole damn country decided to throw the map away too. For myself, 2022 was like an eight-stage rocket of life changing events, so every time I thought I was finished writing, a new bull would come tearing through the clothesline and I’d have to illustrate it in some way. By the end, there were really two different sides to the same story being told. On one side, you’re fighting the darkness and, on the other, you’re bringing your own light to where there is none. One side in a corner, on the ropes, and the other advancing, cleaning the ring. Without an intermission, a refractory period, the collection would be too big a bite, so splitting it in two was the only way to do it.“
Rival Sons is: Jay Buchanan (vocals, harmonica, rhythm guitar), Scott Holiday (lead guitar), Mike Miley (drums), and Dave Beste (bass).
Rival Sons DARKFIGHTER / LIGHTBRINGER UK/EU TOUR:
October 13, 2023 – London Roundhouse, UK
October 14, 2023 – NX – Newcastle, UK
October 16, 2023 – Glasgow, Barrowland Ballroom, UK
October 17, 2023 – O2 Academy – Birmingham, UK
October 18, 2023 – Manchester Academy – Manchester, UK
October 20, 2023 – Cambridge Corn Exchange – Cambridge, UK
October 21, 2023 – O2 Academy – Bristol, UK
October 22, 2023 – O2 Guildhall – Southampton, UK
October 24, 2023 – La Carrière – Nantes, France
October 25, 2023 – Le Radiant – Lyon, France
October 27, 2023 – L’Olympia – Paris, France
October 28, 2023 – Les Docks – Lausanne, Switzerland
October 29, 2023 – Alcatraz – Milan, Italy
October 31, 2023 – Gasometer – Vienna, Austria
November 1, 2023 – X-TRA – Zurich, Switzerland
November 2, 2023 – Theaterfabrik – Munich, Germany
November 4, 2023 – Lucerna Music Bar – Prague, Czech Republic
November 5, 2023 – Klub Stodola – Warsaw, Poland
November 6, 2023 – Music Club B17 – Poznan, Poland
November 8, 2023 – Huxleys – Berlin, Germany
November 9, 2023 – Melkweg Max – Amsterdam, Netherlands
November 10, 2023 – Kantine – Cologne, Germany
November 12, 2023 – Ancienne Belgique – Brussels, Belgium
November 13, 2023 – Grosse Freiheit 36 – Hamburg, Germany
November 14, 2023 – The Grey Hall – Copenhagen, Denmark
November 16, 2023 – Forum Scene – Bergen, Norway
November 17, 2023 – Sentrum Scene – Oslo, Norway
November 18, 2023 – B-K – Stockholm, Sweden
November 20, 2023 – House of Culture – Helsinki, Finland
November 21, 2023 – Tampere Hall – Tampere, Finland
