As Hell Retreats| In All Honesty…
Written By: Kris Welch

As Hell Retreats is a four-piece deathmetal band on the rise and worth talking about. The Tennessee natives have spent years honing their craft and turning heads along the way. They have become known for their brutally heavy sound and being consistently diverse. As the latest addition to ANGR (Ain’t No Grave Recordings), Volition is anticipated to be their greatest album thus far. With their release date right around the corner, we caught up with the quartet to talk album, tours, and everything As Hell Retreats.

What were your greatest inspiration or influences for Volition?

Tyler Riley: Musically, we were heavily influenced by Meshuggah, Thrice, and After the Burial. In the way that our music reflects emotions in the story, we were influenced mostly by  Thrice’s Alchemy Index. Conceptually, we also took influence from Boys Night Out – Trainwreck, and all the Defeater albums. Those are some of the best concept albums in our opinion.

What can fans expect to hear?

TR: Passion and emotion. We strived to make every song speak for itself, emotionally. Without the lyrics, you should be able to tell what mood we were trying to portray.

How is this album different than Revival?

TR: We are young. When we wrote Revival we were even younger. Those were songs written in a transition period with lots of member changes. We didn’t spend much time on it because we didn’t know what was in store for it, honestly (laughs). In comparison, Volition is a lot more collected and thought out. It’s not just songs thrown together from the past couple of years. It’s an album of songs that were written with a purpose and a meaning every step of the way. Style-wise, it’s a lot more progressive, not really “metalcore” or “deathcore”, and not really anything you’ve heard before. Listen to the whole album and you will understand.

What message are you trying to send, if any, with Volition?

TR: The big message here is that no one is alone in feeling the way that they do. Whether you feel like God doesn’t hear your prayers, or you feel like he’s not even there, you’re not alone. Even Jesus himself felt this in a TRUE sense on the cross. God has never left us like he left Jesus on the cross when Jesus stated, “Why have you forsaken me?”. The simple fact that I am not the only one who has felt alone has given me hope. This hope pushes me to learn more about my God and to learn how to become closer to Him. This is the hope that we want to spread. I hope that makes sense (laughs).

In what ways do you hope to impact people with this new album?

TR: I hope that after listening to this album people can learn to be real about their struggles and problems, because that’s the only way we can resolve them. They should come away knowing that there are people that are where they are or have been where they are. You are never truly alone, despite your feelings.

Do you feel your lyrics reflect your personal faith or values?

TR: Our lyrics on this album reflect mostly past feelings and past experiences, but they are extremely personal.

What do you feel sets As Hell Retreats apart in this metal genre?

TR: We honestly write whatever we feel like writing. We don’t write to cater to any particular genre, we’re not concerned with people disliking our music, and we feel like that’s how art should be. We’re interested in bringing something to the table that no one has really covered. So check us out and decide what’s different about us for yourself!

Besides the album, anything coming up for AHR that fans can look out for?

TR: We’re shooting a music video for the song, “Matriarch” which is about the feeling of losing one of the most influential people in your life. Also we’re hitting some festivals, and we have some tours lined up that should be announced soon!

Will you be revealing any new songs off the album on Scream the Prayer?

TR: We will be playing three songs from the new album. “Young Heretic”, “Matriarch”, and “Heaven’s Bane”. “Young Heretic” is on our Facebook, and “Matriarch” will be released on Facebook on June 28th!