Official press release:
The recently reunited Dr. Acula announces details of its first new album since 2012; the start of an entirely new chapter for this band, the upcoming self-titled full-length will be released October 28th on Silent Pendulum Records.
Dr. Acula is a comeback of epic proportions – a radical reboot that sees this comedic outfit reborn as a dark, focused, beast of a modern metal band.
Stream the first single, “The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena”, and pre-order the album, here:
Founded in 2005 in Long Island, New York, Dr. Acula was named after a Mitch Hedberg stand-up bit: “I went to the doctor. All he did was suck blood from my neck. Do not go see Dr. Acula.” Fueled by sophomoric humor and a gleeful compulsion to mash genres, the young bucks released four full length albums and two EPs via labels such as Victory and Uprising, burning through a slew of members in the process.
Now, ten years since the last album, Dr. Acula’s founding members have reclaimed their band and rewritten the script with a crushing and dead-serious collection of new songs.
Bassist Rob Guarino states:
“To put it frankly, this chapter of Dr. Acula is a ‘party’s over’ vibe. When we started over 15 years ago, it was all fun and games. We weren’t really paying attention. Now we’ve grown, our fans have grown, and there’s a conversation to be had. Life isn’t great for most people these days and we wanted to write something that could touch on that. Those are the songs that move us personally and we wanted to challenge ourselves to make that for someone else.”
Guarino explains:
“The album’s overarching theme is that of being stuck on a loop. A loop where shit keeps going wrong. Even if you see it coming, you may not be able to fix it because it’s out of your hands. The horror theme of the song titles ties into how terrifying life can be.”
First single “The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena” blasts out of the gate with a high-speed thrash attack, before descending into a Converge-esque breakdown. Vocalist Rob Accardi discusses the song’s message:
“We’ve written a lot of songs about how partying and doing drugs is fun. With this album we really wanted to explore the darker side, both lyrically and musically.”
Guitarist Lou Figurito says:
“It’s a new perspective that comes with experience. Going from youthful recklessness and invincibility to the realization that the down sides will eventually get the upper hand. ‘Snowman’ is a first-person perspective of one of those nights, turned early mornings, where that realization starts to settle in.”
Dr. Acula was engineered by Anthony Lopardo, and mixed and mastered by Moon Tooth drummer Ray Marte, at Westfall Recording Company in Farmingdale, NY.
The album artwork was created by illustrator Dan Buksa, also responsible for a comic book that will be included in the LP.
The album’s closing track, “The Barking Ghost”, features guest vocals by Kyle Medina of Bodysnatcher.
Once a messy, polarizing band, making noise for the fun of it, Dr. Acula has evolved into its next form, bearing its new self-titled album as proof. But there is a certain beauty in the naïve stylings of the early days and an argument can be made that a new generation has taken cues from the young Dr. Acula’s unfettered, kitchen-soup approach to music-making. The early works take on new importance when viewed in their historical context and the Dr. Acula of 2022 will be rubbing elbows with bands at least partly influenced by the risks they took in the ’00s.
Accardi states:
“We’ve been out of the game for a bit and there are a lot of bands we’ve interacted with that are absolutely crushing it now. Some of which we are lucky to be sharing the stage with this summer.”
Dr. Acula track listing:
- “Epilogue”
- “Apotheosis”
- “The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena”
- “How to Kill a Monster”
- “Welcome to Dead House”
- “Egg Monsters from Mars”
- “Don’t Go to Sleep!”
- “Stay Out of the Basement”
- “The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight”
- “The Werewolf of Fever Swamp”
- “The Barking Ghost” feat. Kyle Medina
