The Word Alive is back with their seventh release, Hard Reset. This album stays true to the band’s roots by blending all eras of TWA but also evolves them into their new era. Lead singer Telle Smith said, “We wanted to take the essence of the band—the heaviness, the atmospherics, the experimental elements, and the melodic side—and put everything into one album.”
This is an album that fully portrays the real them.
The first track on the album, “The Word Alive is Dead…” is a sort of cleansing of the palate before this new era. “It's not the end, tell a friend, soon the show will begin // It's not the end, welcome in, are you ready to live?” Though the title and lyric contradict each other, it’s part of the bigger picture that is Hard Reset.
Hard Reset features a lot of really strong collaborations which Telle shares was a natural process to decide who would be featured, saying, "I would be working on a song, and when the song showed me who of my friends' voices would fit best, I just texted them and asked if they would be down. Thankfully, everybody loved their songs, and I couldn’t be happier with how everyone did. It’s always easy to work with friends, especially as talented as the guys are." “One Of Us” features Noah Sebastian from Bad Omens. There is this sort of synergy in the song that is caused by the atmosphere and the melody and is felt from the instrumentals to the lyrics to the vocals. The song also features a nostalgic nod to the Deceiver hit “2012.” There is no song on Hard Reset that guides fans into the new era of The Word Alive quite like “One of Us” does. Other features on the album include “Hate Me” with Loveless, Fade Away with Escape The Fate, "A New Empty" with Normandie, and “War With You” with From First To Last.
My personal favorite off the album right now, “Slow Burn”, is encapsulated with emotions of sadness, anger, and desperation learned through a hard lesson. It’s such a different sound from the band, being on the more acoustic side and giving the song an extremely intimate feeling. Compared to the previous singles they released for this album that feature a more heavy and fast-paced tempo, “Slow Burn” puts the brakes on and basically asks to stop for a moment, listen, and reflect. “This song is like a vision of yourself getting into a car crash in slow motion," explains Telle. "You’re helpless and nobody can save you but yourself… But it’s too late. Is it a vision? Or is it inevitable?”
The new album, Hard Reset, navigates through the feeling of existentialism and worrying about the future. It focuses on introspection that can help create small changes within us all, which, in turn, makes the world a better place. The overall goal of the album is that the fans are able to connect to the message of Hard Reset, whether it's in just one song or in all thirteen. "As you embark on this next chapter with us, we hope you’ll find something worthy of connection. Whether it helps you overcome, forget, remember, embrace, or even escape… We hope you’ll enjoy the seventh chapter of our story, and remember… We are The Word Alive, all of us." says Telle
The Word Alive is currently out on the road on their “Hard Reset” headlining tour!
Even though we’re all excited to hear all these new songs, TWA is playing “15 songs for 15 years” of their career! Get your tickets now and hear Hard Reset live!
Remaining dates on The Hard Reset Tour:
Aug. 25th - Nashville, TN - The End
Aug. 26th - Greensboro, NC - Hangar 1819
Aug. 27th - Richmond, VA - Canal Club
Aug. 29th - London, ON - London Music Hall **
Aug. 30th - Pittsburgh, PA - Enclave
Aug. 31st - Bloomington, IL - Castle Theater
Sept. 1st - Iowa City, IA - Wildwood
Sept. 2nd - Wichita, KS - Templelive
Sept. 3rd - Colorado Springs, CO - Black Sheep
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