August Burns Red, 'Rescue & Restore,' Released June 25, Fifth Full-Length Studio Album Expected To Top Charts?

August Burns Red, Christian metalcore band, released their latest album, 'Rescue & Restore,' earlier today, June 25.

The band's website refers to the new album as "a colossal effort which turns a critical eye to the oft-maligned genre, leading by example to prove that bands can still find exciting new ways to expand the genre without simply falling into repetitive trappings."  It is an 11-track album that features heavy drums, guitar riffs and a whole lot of screaming, along with some less-common liberties taken with additional piano, cello, violin, trumpet and percussive elements.

"Rescue & Restore is about challenging other bands and ourselves, as well as fans of this music, to want more than whatever happens to be the current buzz," said JB Brubaker, guitarist and principal songwriter for the band, according to their website. "We've done our best with each new album to try to push our sound in new directions and we'd like to see our peers do the same. People need to realize that there's not much of a difference between a metalcore song that has a couple breakdowns with a repeating chorus and the latest Lady Gaga song. This genre used to be better than that. It can still be better than that." 

Although the band features a lot of the common metal elements, they also try to branch away and add some unique touches to their music that isn't commonly found elsewhere.  "At the end of the day we are still a very heavy band," Brubaker says. "Rescue & Restore still has plenty of really heavy stuff, techy odd meter riffs, and all the stuff that people have come to expect from us, it just has a lot more surprises along the way."

'Rescue & Restore' marks the fifth full-length studio album produced by August Burns Red.  They have traveled across the world and performed in well-known musical touring including the the 'Download Festival,' in the UK and the 'Vans Warped Tour,' in the U.S.  The band's most popular album to date has been their fourth studio album, 'Leveler,' from 2011, which debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 chart and No. 1 Hard Rock album, as well as No. 2 Rock Album.

Despite the success of their 2011 album, August Burns Red focuses constantly changing their style and creating something new and unexpected with each album.  "I think our listeners expect us to try new things and know that each new album won't be a carbon copy of the previous one," said Brubaker. "I believe we managed to write our most diverse record to date, one that longtime listeners will love, and a record that will hopefully inspire some other bands to try new things and encourage us to continue to push the boundaries in our own music."

The band is not obviously Christian, however, in an interview with Shout! a couple of years back Brubaker explained that the band is Christian, although that is not something that necessarily defines their music.  He said, "Christian is a religion and not a style of music [and I would] rather just let the music speak for itself."  Despite this idea, Brubaker  says that, "it is important to us that people know that we are indeed Christians...without having us stand up there and ram it down people's throats."

They hope to continue to write music and to grow as musicians.  "With every album we want to get better as musicians, as songwriters, as performers. We all genuinely love what we are doing and that is great motivation to always try to improve and expand," Brubaker said. "I think our best days are still ahead."

The band is currently touring with the 2013 Vans Warped Tour throughout the Summer, until the tour comes to an end at the beginning of August.