Defeater is streaming their new album prior to its official release at www.defeater.me/. Abandoned is the 4th studio album from the Boston hardcore band and it will be released on Friday, August 28th via Epitaph.
Unlike most bands – Defeater don’t write songs so much as they write histories, and specifically the history of a never-named New Jersey family whose already troubled lives disintegrate into torment, rendered all the more tragic for the depth and detail of singer Derek Archambault’s lyrics. Abandoned was written and recorded in a welcome period of relief in Archambault’s life, after he’d finally received a life-changing surgery that repaired severe hip damage he suffered in an injury. For years, chronic pain had been constricting his life, interfering with Defeater’s performances and tours. Archambault’s surgery, he says, allowed him to redouble his connection with his own writing, leaving him clear to truly inhabit what he calls his own Glass family—after the famous J.D. Salinger characters.
The pain his characters feel comes from pain he’s witnessed or experienced, and the unexplainable event that triggers the story of Abandoned—the action of a higher power or just chance, says Archambault. And his main character’s agonizing relationship with that higher power—and the very question of the existence was born from Archambault’s own disillusionment with church as a child.
But Abandoned isn’t just some heavy-handed polemic against religion, explains Archambault. (“And I’m not trying to paint everyone as martyrs,” he adds. “Pun intended for this record.”) Instead, it’s a way to use religion—as well as drugs, alcohol and even fleeting moments of love. Says Archambault: “This is my ending metaphor for life—it’s about how people constantly look for answers for their questions in all the wrong places.
Pre-orders for Abandoned are available on CD and vinyl at and on iTunes. Defeater will be back in Europe on the Impericon Never Say Die Tour! this fall in support of the new album.
ABANDONED TRACK LIST
1. Contrition
2. Unanswered
3. December 1943
4. Spared In Hell
5. Divination
6. Borrowed & Blue
7. Penance
8. Remorse
9. Pillar Of Salt
10. Atonement
11. Vice & Regret
IMPERICON NEVER SAY DIE! TOUR
06 Nov – Wiesbaden (DE) – Schlachthof
07 Nov – Antwerp (BE) – Trix
08 Nov – London (UK) – Koko
09 Nov – Manchester (UK) – Club Academy
10 Nov – Glasgow (UK) – Garage
11 Nov – Bristol (UK) – Marble Factory
12 Nov – Haarlem (NL) – Patronaat
13 Nov – Hamburg (DE) – Markthalle
14 Nov – Berlin (DE) – Astra
15 Nov – Prague (CZ) – Meet factory
16 Nov – Hungary (HU) – Durer Kert
17 Nov – Vienne (AT) – Arena
18 Nov – Bologna (IT) – Zona Roveri
19 Nov – Munich (DE) – Backstage
20 Nov – Pratteln (CH) – 27
21 Nov – Lyon (FR) – CCO
22 Nov – Barcelona (ES) – Razzmatazz
23 Nov – Madrid (ES) – Sala Cats
24 Nov – Bordeaux (FR) – Rock School Barbey
25 Nov – Paris (FR) – Machine Du Moulin Rouge
26 Nov – Stuttgart (DE) – LKA
27 Nov – Oberhausen (DE) – Turbinenhalle 2
28 Nov – Leipzig (DE) – Werk 2
