“There’s been plenty of times in the past where this thing could have died, and lo and behold, we still have this little ALIEN ANT FARM plant,” says vocalist Dryden Mitchell, who’s busy pacing the corridors of his California home, as he reflects on the arrival of their first album in nine years, ~mAntras~. “This time around we’ve watered it and we’ve given it nutrients; this is the full chance of a flourish and at least from our end, for karma’s sake, I think we’ve put a lot more into this than we have anything in the near past.”
Dryden’s not lying either. From the moment The Wrong Things opens the door to ~mAntras~ and walks through with a grungy, alt-metal stomp, it’s clear the ALIEN ANT FARM you’re getting isn’t the band you grew up moonwalking around your living rooms to – and for the better.
“We learned a lot of lessons over the last few years, but one of the best things we could have done for this record was let ourselves be ourselves,” reflects guitarist Terry Corso, the Kyle Gass to Dryden’s Jack Black. “For this album, it was important to fall back on who we were, and who we are now, and just be ourselves as creators, as musicians. It’s like us, but a very grown-up, wiser version of us.”
For a band whose name is synonymous with their noughties nu-metal cover of MICHAEL JACKSON’s Smooth Criminal, stepping out of that songs shadow is something that’s taken them 23 years to confidently do. Because “a lot of people just go right to Smooth Criminal in their head”, it’s always been hard to steer ALIEN ANT FARM down a different lane, as Terry adds, “we’re well aware of what that song did, and how it helped the future unfold, and it’s always there but I try to push it out.”
~mAntras~ really does pick its paints from a different palette. The likes of Last dAntz and So Cold sail into the proggy arena-rock shores COHEED & CAMRBIA swim in, whilst drummer Mike Cosgrove’s drums and Dryden’s penchant for groove-laden hooks leave Fade and No1 sounding like supernovas in the night sky. Even their version of WHAM!’s Everything She Wants is a seriously fun alt-metal outing that doesn’t get stuck in the mud of a cheesy cover.
You don’t need this writer to tell you it’s their best album, Dryden, Terry, Mike, and bassist Timmy P will be the first to admit it. Self-produced by themselves, after four of the songs came from failed sessions with a producer Dryden just couldn’t gel with, it’s the sound of a band with their shit together, as Dryden explains. “I wish ANThology had some of this sturdiness, because then that would’ve been a knockout; not to say I [don’t] love ANThology, it is what created the sound that we are, but this record just feels buffer and tougher and slicker in so many ways”.
Whilst so much of ~mAntras~ wears its heart on its sleeve, an audible diary documenting Dryden’s journey to sobriety, on no track than the future anthem No1 is it clearer where the ALIEN ANT FARM glow-up got its start, both lyrically and musically.
“It’s pretty apparent it’s about me getting sober, and I wanted to say something that wasn’t cliche or preachy,” discloses Dryden, who’s an open book on his experiences past and present. “I want you to hear my take on how to crawl out of a seemingly pretty terrible situation and make new again and make nice again, and try to show up and be present in people’s lives.”
No1 bears Dryden’s scars for all the world to see, with lines like “last year my world was burning, falling apart, so I made a plan to clean it up, make a brand new start, I can’t recall a single happy day, I guess that’s just the price I pay” leaving a lasting impression long after the next song is served up. It still sticks with Dryden, too. “It’s a trippy one man, because the ‘can’t recall’ is the horror word right there, because there’s a lot of that with my drinking; pretty sad to not remember what a shithead you’ve been, but it’s even sadder to not remember the good things.”
Musically, the track takes its cues from the band’s time making 2003’s truANT with STONE TEMPLE PILOTS’ Robert and Dean DeLeo, and from the song Still Remains off 1994’s Purple. “The riff that Terry gave me for No1 reminded me of little hints of that time period, but I remember specifically wanting to make that one lyrically special in a weird creepy way, like the Scott Weiland thing where he didn’t even stop getting fucked up, there’s a hint to that.”
Sure, Dryden’s sobriety takes up its fair share of the record’s lyrical stock, yet doesn’t outstay its welcome. And there’s plenty of other themes to fill your cup up with and drink from, as Terry elaborates that “the songs were all derived over this period, with all this different stuff happening from pandemics to real life stuff, like people passing away, people being born.” It’s where the album’s easter egg-filled title track gets its name from.
“It was just life stuff that we dealt with and it altered us in ways hopefully positive, you know, and it’s the idea of a mantra, or maybe a meditation, and it’s like a universal kind of feeling – it feels like we made a collection of our own life mantras,” Terry says, before Dryden spells it out. “A mantra is gotta be something that you repeat, and I already did 7,000 takes of these damn songs, so if the repeat ain’t in that than I don’t know what else to call it.”
In ~mAntras~, ALIEN ANT FARM have found 11 mantras they’ve made their own. They could’ve called it quits and no one would’ve cared, instead they’ve delivered their best work in decades, demanding you to stand up and take notice. But at the end of the day, they’re just proud of themselves.
“This one feels really trippy to me, it sounds like a different band and I love that about it,” beams Dryden, before driving it home, “sometimes when I feel like I made it, I don’t dig it as much as if someone else made it, like when you cook your own food or something, it’s good and it tastes great, then someone else makes something and you like it more for some reason.”
“It’s hard to get myself to give me the chills through music, maybe because I’m not that good at it, but every once in a while, we hit those little moments in this record where I’m like ‘oh man’ and it slams down the perfect lyric and it gets me all chilly.”
~mAntras~ is out now via Megaforce Records.
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