Butcher Babies have announced a new album, Nightbloom, due out October 2nd via Judge and Jury Records. It is their first studio album without founding co-vocalist Carly Harvey, who departed in 2024.
The band has also released a new live action music video for their single “Blame It On the Wind,” which previously received an animated video in early June.
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“Blame It On the Wind” is a far cry from the earlier material by Butcher Babies. The verse is a well-produced and slick mainstream rock track that then explodes in the chorus with djent guitars and a well-delivered screamed vocal from lead singer Heidi Shepherd. The solo in the bridge avoids technical flash but still makes interesting melodic choices, feeling closer to what a progressive band might do than something as ultimately approachable to this. It’s a strong hybrid of heavier rock and metal sounds borrowed from the underground applied to something more accessible.
“Blame It On the Wind” is the album’s fourth single, following “Sincerity,” “Lost in Your Touch,” and “Black Dove.”
Shepherd said of the making of Nightbloom:
“Therapy sent me down a rabbit hole that I didn’t know existed. Over the course of a year, I was flooded with memories of trauma and emotions that I had suppressed. I started to feel that in this overwhelming darkness, these memories needed a way out. So, I started writing. I wrote about my failure of a ‘perfect’ marriage over 20 years ago. I wrote about the stormy canyon road that sent us to divorce. I wrote about watching the love of my life fall in love with someone else in front of me. I wrote about a one-night stand that has haunted me for decades. I wrote about a former boyfriend who took his own life. I wrote about Mormon religion ostracizing me while their members, and my neighbors shamed my family for supporting me. And even more currently, I wrote the abandonment of losing a best friend of 20 years. I wrote about moments that I didn’t realize held so much weight on my heart until we tore that fucker open in therapy.”
Guitarist Henry Flury’s thoughts on the album were short and focused, saying, “Writing with purpose. That was the overall theme of this album. Each part, layer, lyric was crafted with purpose and focus. Nothing was unimportant. Every detail was created to tell a story with a singular voice. Nightbloom is our most important work we’ve ever done in Butcher Babies.”
Butcher Babies are set to embark on a US tour that begins this Saturday, August 22nd, and runs until October 25th. Get tickets here.
Watch the new music video for “Blame It On the Wind” and see the album art and tracklist for Nightbloom below.
Nightbloom Artwork:
Nightbloom Tracklist:
01. Lost in Your Touch
02. Sincerity
03. Blame it on the Wind
04. Broken & Beautiful
05. Are You Waiting Up?
06. Black Clouds Over Georgia
07. Fever In My Neck
08. Songbird
09. Leaving California
10. Black Dove
