On their ninth rendezvous Another Miracle, Of Mice & Men upped the ante, writing and producing absolutely everything in house. While it wasn’t their first time at the helm of production – it’s actually their third – the group seem to tap into their heaviest and melodic side at the same time. Arguably allowed by the fact that Of Mice & Men have full control to construct what they deem is their vision: “The process of self-recording and self-producing this album as well the last two has seen us really trying to one up what we’ve done in the past – and it’s on us to do that. On this album in particular, we wanted to push the boundaries of what that sounds like for our band,” drummer Valentino Arteaga explains.
In-studio bassist and all-around vocalist Aaron Pauley elaborated on Arteaga‘s point further, saying that “We’re always pushing the boundaries of what excites us musically. We never thought we would get to our ninth album, so the only way to progress forward is to challenge ourselves and utilise what we’ve learned from working with different producers over the decades.”
Full of soaring, ear-worm choruses and clipboard-snapping breakdowns, Of Mice & Men aren’t quite at their most adventurous, rather cherry picking from the techniques they’ve used in the last decade. Yes, it sounds like Of Mice & Men, but with an edge of suspense. “I feel like on our last three albums we’ve really dove into layering tons of production and other instrumental elements into the background of our music. On the last two records people have said we sound a little more experimental, but to me that just means there were more elements of parts that weren’t just a guitar riff or a singing part,” guitarist Alan Ashby adds about the band’s sound.
Lead guitarist Phil Manansala continues with, “We wanted to create songs that didn’t have the predictability of what we were going to do next to keep the fans on the edge of what’s going to happen next.”
Another Miracle was released on November 14th via Century Media Records. You can stream the record here, and check out the band’s newest music video below.
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