(antiMusic) August Burns Red's new album, Constellations hits stores this week. To celebrate the release we asked JB Brubaker and Matt Greiner to pick some of their favorite tracks from the album and tell us the stories behind the songs. They more than came through! Here is today's song "Paradox"": JB Brubaker "Paradox" was the first song we brought together as a band, but it was the sixth song I had written for the album. It was one of the most straight up, to the point songs I had written so we decided to learn this song first since it was easier.
Even though "Paradox" is a pretty straight up metal jam, it's also the fastest song on the record tempo wise. Most of the song is in the 220 BPM range, and most of the breakdowns are basically half time of the actual tempo. This made for some of our slowest rhythms to date, as well as some of our fastest leads. The melody over the last breakdown of the song was the fastest riff I play on the entire record. It's in 7/8 and it took me FOREVER to get up to speed. I sat down and played the riff to a metronome for 20 minutes a day for about two weeks before I was remotely close to playing it up to speed. No one likes taking that approach because it's boring and time consuming, but I had no other choice.
Matt Greiner Paradox was the first song I wrote to on drums. The first :30 seconds of this song on drums were inspired by The Agony Scene's ex-drummer, Brent Masters. Brent always had a way of grooving at fast tempos and it helped me understand how to make that happen in Paradox. I spent more time writing drum parts to Paradox than any other song on Constellations. Such is usually the case with the first song I write to on any of our records.
The rhythm at the end of the song is in 7/8. The interesting thing about this rhythm is how it is played and essentially felt on the drums. I match the 7/8 rhythm with my feet but my hands are playing in straight 4/4. In this way, the rhythm is groovier and more to feel 'circular.' JB changes things up not long after the rhythm starts by bringing back the 8/4 and 6/4 lead and cycling it over the rhythm.
Learn more about the band, preview tracks from the album and more - right here!
