Phpto by Simo Pussinen
Influential Los Angeles rock band 96 Bitter Beings have announced their ‘Return To Hellview’ with a new record featuring a collection of fan-favourite, re-recorded CKY tracks spanning founding guitarist, vocalist and primary songwriter Deron Miller’s time with the band.
Set for release digitally on 14th June from Nuclear Blast, Return To Hellview gives nod in the title to the hostile town of Hellview Miller first sang about on CKY’s debut track ‘96 Bitter Beings,’ which the band takes their name from.
Pre-save Return To Hellview: https://bfan.link/return-to-hellview
On the upcoming release Miller says:
“Revisiting these songs was a blast. I hadn’t heard the original versions in so long but I was able to get a lot of the re-recordings done just from memory. When the recording process got down to covering specific details of all the tracks, that’s when I went back and listened to the original versions.
“I love all the songs but there’s always been issues that bothered me about the originals. A lot of my problems with them were arbitrary and not that important…things that I just wanted to fix that most listeners wouldn’t even notice. But there were some things I wanted to add to these songs and some things I wanted to take out. The goal was to challenge myself to redo these classic tracks in a way that they could be heard as remixes instead of re-recordings. I think we succeeded.
“I hope a lot of fans will hear this album as remixes of the originals. Not many bands have access to the original masters that are owned by record companies and therefore don’t have the option to remix anything. We’re excited to see the response.”
96 Bitter Beings has revealed the first re-recorded single, ‘Flesh Into Gear,’ that’s accompanied by the visualizer.
Miller adds about re-recording the beloved single: “‘Flesh Into Gear’ was a sizeable hit for me and because of that I tended to always put it under a microscope. I was never fully happy with the original’s mix. I’m finally 100% happy with it. This whole process is the result of a nutty perfectionist trying to chase that feeling of total satisfaction. I achieved it. Basically, I’m saying I won’t be doing this again 20 years from now.”
Stream ‘Flesh Into Gear’: https://bfan.link/flesh-into-gear
Deron Miller gives his life to the riff. Unrestrained by industry expectations and genre limitations, the boundlessly prolific guitarist and voice behind multiple beloved projects is best known as the founder, frontman, and songwriter in CKY. His authentic and effortlessly hooky heavy rock obsession returns with 96 Bitter Beings. Reinvigorated and ready to rumble all over again, Miller roars back with the same reverence for riffage that made underground hits out of CKY anthems like ‘Flesh Into Gear’, ‘Escape from Hellview’, and ‘Disengage the Simulator’ from 1998 till 2011.
The familiar warmth, feel, groove, and unapologetic honesty which drove the song ’96 Quite Bitter Beings’ to 54 million streams (on Spotify alone) permeates the pair of albums unleashed by 96BB.
A successful crowdfunding campaign saw Miller, guitarist Kenneth Hunter, bassist Shaun Luera and Shaun’s brother, drummer Tim, conjure up 2018’s Camp Pain in limited release. North American touring followed, wrapping up shortly before the COVID-19 shutdowns.
“After CKY and a short break, I decided to continue, without changing the sound,” Miller explains. “Because that’s what I do. It’s what I love to do and what people say I do well. All of the guys who got in the band with me are great musicians. And each of them is hungry. They have priorities and ambitions about being in a rock band, no matter the grim state of pop music out there. If we can bring rock and metal back to the mainstream, in some way, that’s the dream.”
In 2022, 96 Bitter Beings joined Nuclear Blast Records and shortly after released their critically revered album, Synergy Restored, which features the standout tracks ‘Vaudeville’s Revenge,’ ‘Wish Me Dead,’ ‘Fire Skyline’ and ‘Bloodrock Mania.’
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