The Acacia Strain began releasing their new album Slow Decay back in February with an EP called D. That EP was logically followed by four more EPs titled E, C, A, and Y, with the band then announcing their new album Slow Decay. The album features all the previously released songs alongside two additional tracks.
So why release an album in bits and pieces over the course of a few months? Guitarist Devin Shidaker told MetalSucks releasing the album like that kept the songs way fresher in fans' minds.
"With Slow Decay it was a similar idea to It Comes In Waves. We didn’t want to do the same thing with it being a surprise release, but we thought about how everything has changed over the past few years with how we consume music. When you put out a record, you have this huge hype train of everyone going ‘the new record is out on this day’ and ‘check it out on this day.’ Everyone’s worried about their first week sales, there’s all this build up, everyone’s talking about your record for a week when it comes out. And then you do some tours on it but you’re not keeping it in everyone’s mind.
"So we figured it we break this up and release it slowly like we have been, basically two songs a month in EP form, it gives people something to look forward to and it keeps it fresh in everyone’s mind. Like if I listen to the first two songs that came out and then two more songs come out, I’m gonna listen to the first two again as well to see how they relate to each other. And I think it’s been working pretty well for us. They’re staying fresh in everyone’s mind as opposed to just being like, ‘oh yeah, forgot about that.’"
Grab all five EPs and Slow Decay here.
