Failure Announce ‘The Heart Is a Monster’ Album + Unleash New Song ‘Hot Traveler’

Failure arrived in the early-to-mid-'90s as one of the more promising bands in rock, but after recording their breakout 1996 album Fantastic Planet, the group members went their separate ways. Now, nearly two decades later, the band is set to return with a new disc titled The Heart Is a Monster.

The trio will release the album on June 30 via INgrooves Music Group's INresidence division. Frontman Ken Andrews states, "Trying to follow up Fantastic Planet was a bit daunting. We've pushed the bar upward again, but at the same time, we've kept the signature sound of the band intact."

In the years since Failure, Andrews balanced a career that included such projects as On and Year of the Rabbit as well as production work for other acts, and he lends his skills here as a mixer and co-producer of the album with his Failure bandmates.

Guitarist Greg Edwards adds, "Thematically we've moved from the outer space of Fantastic Planet to inner space. From the dislocation of one's identity to the complete erasing of it by sleep and dreams. I think we've even used instrumentation in the service of mood and emotion to an even greater degree than on our previous records."

The band, which now features Kellii Scott rounding out the group on drums, returned from their 17-year hiatus in early 2014. After a sold out Los Angeles date, the band opened a run of gigs for Tool last year. Andrews says that early on in the reunion it was decided that the band was not forming merely for a nostalgia run. "We wanted to come back as a full functioning musical force and creatively pick up where we left off with Fantastic Planet," stated Andrews to Noisey. "That meant we needed to start experimenting in the studio first, which we did in late 2013. After a few months, we came to the conclusion that we were having a good time and that we liked the results, and that we thought the results were definitely Failure. We’ve been chipping away at a new album this whole time.”

The band recently performed at South By Southwest and worked in a new track called "Hot Traveler." You can take a listen to the song in the player above. In other news, the band has announced plans to reissue Fantastic Planet on vinyl. Get details on the PledgeMusic campaign here. And you can look for Failure returning to the road at these locations.

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