Interview: Beastwars Talk About Their New Album 'The Ship // The Sea' + Tour

Following the face-down-death intensity of IV (2019) and 2023's covers collection Tyranny Of Distance, today's new album from Beastwars draws from a well of fresh inspiration and energy, plumbing incomprehensibly vast oceanic depths on The Ship // The Sea. Out today in good record stores on vinyl LP, the Pōneke metal collective of Matthew Hyde, Christian Pearce, James Woods and Nathan Hickey are touring their mega-heavy opus in Australia next week, then returning to Aotearoa for a nationwide run of headline dates, joined by top tier supports in each city. Crank up The Ship // The Sea to unacceptable levels, check out their highly wearable new range of tees HERE, and read Hickey's words on the voyage to Beastwars' sixth studio record below...

Beastwars - The Ship // The Sea - Album Release Tour

Thursday 20th November - Last Place, Hamilton w/ Pull Down The Sun*
Friday 21st November - Double Whammy, Auckland w/ Soft Bait, Demons of Noon*
Saturday 22nd November - Meow Nui, Wellington w/ Soft Bait, Pull Down The Sun
Friday 28th November - Dropkicks, Dunedin w/ SLUR, Splinter
Saturday 29th November - Churchill's, Christchurch w/ From Moose Mountain*

*Tickets on sale HERE via UTR
More info and tickets via beastwarsband.com

Chris Cudby: The Ship // The Sea sounds like Beastwars at the height of your powers, like a band reborn following your covers album and reissue releases...

Nathan Hickey: I 100% feel like the band has been reborn on this album. For a number of reasons. Having one of our founding members leave made us feel like we needed a complete reset for the band to continue. Not only did that 16 year relationship with Clayton (Anderson) change, but both myself and our bass player James had very long term marriages end. We talked about needing the band to keep going so we could commit to weekly jams just for the benefit of our mental health.

The covers album came about from needing to create music but not having the creative energy due to this stuff going on in personal lives to write new music from scratch. I had at least 2 or 3 years with complete writers block and the covers album was necessary to take the pressure off needing to write new material. It worked because it unlocked a flood of new inspiration.

Matthew has described The Ship // The Sea as "like Picasso’s Guernica — a reflection of war and horror, of endings and upheavals. It's the sound of a ship adrift on a cruel sea". How did you hone in on the / oceanic theme for the new record? Did you have any specific aims in mind when you began work on the new album?

It started really early on when I was looking at all of our album covers and was thinking about the elements of nature. We have Fire, Earth, Air and Ether subconsciously represented in our previous album artworks but we had never had Water. That got me talking to Matt about what water symbolises — life, purity, transformation, rebirth but also destruction and chaos. It all rolled on from there. One of my favourite lyrics on the album is "I washed all your skin, now you're rusting away." I think that line really hits me as I can relate so strongly to it personally. Embracing this theme made us look to record by the ocean which is how we ended up at the beautiful Studio 11b in Mt Maunganui.

Is there any one song on The Ship // The Sea that you reckon gets to the crux of the album as a whole?

'Guardian of Fire' — it's got the riffs, the doom, some unexpected time changes, tempo changes, great musical harmonies.

What has the addition of Christian Pearce as now a core member of the band brought to Beastwars?

He has brought a lot of jokes and non-stop puns. He's by far the best musician in the band and like all of us has a very varied taste in music, so he draws inspiration from a lot of different places when adding his many flourishes to both our old and new songs. Very cool, handsome guy with a lot of tattoos haha.

How do songs actually get written in Beastwars? Who brought what to the table on the new record?

I have always been the primary riff writer in the band and as a band we say the other guys "Beastwarsify" it in the jam room, adding their unique tone and style. On this album Matt would come to my place and sing over demos and refine them at his house rather than in the jam room with us. Christian is a great writer and has an incredible sense of melody. He wrote the music for the first half of 'We Don't Say Fear' and as soon as I heard it I said "that's the opening song on the album."

What's the process like recording with James Goldsmith at this point, after working together on your last three studio albums?

We definitely have our process sussed, and he has a very clear understanding of what "Beastwars" sounds like as he also has mixed us live for years. We know each other well enough that we can have robust creative discussions but always end up in a place that we're all happy. I really like how he understands that we don't want to sound like a typical metal band and brings in a lot of indie inspiration to the sound.

What kind of direction did you give Nick Keller for the awesome album artwork?

Nick is a massive part of our band. And I give him credit for making people take us seriously when our first album came out — because the artwork just looked so good it made people want to listen. We told Nick that we were planning on making an album as soon as we started jamming new songs and discussed the water theme really early on. Matt took the lead in creating the actual concept for the art a warship on a ferocious ocean surrounded by sea monsters and UFO's. The idea was the ship representing the body and the sea representing life.

Have there been any standout younger local groups that have commanded your attention over the past two years?

I do like to keep my ears open to new bands and try to see as much live music as I can. A few that have really impressed me recently are BIRDPARTY from Whanganui, Sighthound from Wellington, Slur from Invercargill, the new heavy Sulfate lineup in Auckland and back here at home I've seen Dead Queens play some great sets.

What can fans look forward to from this month's release shows in Aotearoa and Australia?

A re-energised band playing a huge set of fan favourites from the old albums and a kick ass selection of new tunes scattered amongst them. We are also sounding tighter and heavier than ever before so you're in for a great night.

'The Ship // The Sea' is out today via Destroy Records.