For most bands, album number two is make-or-break time. The general consensus is that a band's debut album is their easiest, taking into account things like no pressure as an unknown band and having a larger amount of time to come up with material and draw from their well of music.
But the dreaded sophomore album - especially if the debut is a raging success - is usually the one by which a band is judged. And more than you think fail. There's a multitude of reasons and excuses for this, but we are here to dwell on the positives, not the negatives.
Yorkshire melodic metal outfit Caskets fall firmly into this category. Following the breakthrough global success of their first album Lost Souls, Caskets went more introspective for the follow-up, Reflections, and although it, too, was well received, the band themselves still felt they could do better. And so it is that the band approached album number three, the hurdle of the dreaded second album behind them.
It was another fresh approach from Caskets, with frontman Matt Flood opening up and delving into deeply personal troubles like never before on The Only Heaven You’ll Know, which is out now. It was a risk, in a sense, inviting fans to take such a journey with a band on only their third album, but one which looks set to pay dividends, with Flood joining HEAVY to dive deeper. One of the topics of discussion was a quote from Flood that said, "this record is the sound of me falling apart in real time", which we ask him to elaborate on.
"I write, or I sing, or I've written lyrics where a lot of the meanings of these songs are written about parts of me, or aspects of my life that I've - in all honesty - been too scared or anxious to talk about before," he explained. "Ever. To anyone. I feel like it's time for me now to get these… not only thoughts out of my head for my own sake, but I know that this type of stuff that I've gone through in the past and what I've sung about in these new songs, I know they will potentially help other people listening. They will relate to it, and I hope it helps them find some closure or helps them feel heard and feel seen. A lot of the songs are about my dealings with my belief in Faith and my past with addictions and parts of my upbringing, and my own self-criticisms as well. It's about time I took a little bit of responsibility for some of the bad I've done in my life that I have kept inside and pent up. I let that out not just for me, but so other people can hear that it's fine to acknowledge that sometimes you can be the bad person in a situation, but also know that we all have bad in us, and we all do bad things, but it's also fine to forgive yourself and try and find forgiveness."
In the full interview, Matt talks more about the personal nature of The Only Heaven You’ll Know, what they were going for musically, how the album is the best representation yet of Caskets as a band and how such personal lyrics help in his own healing process.
He talks about the early days of Caskets and the band's early vision, how it has changed since, and their future goals as a band. Matt also talks about how each album has to stand on its own merits rather than repeat the winning formula of what came before, their Australian tour next year and what to expect, plus more.
Become a supporter of this podcast:
https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.
