Black Veil Brides Reveal New Album + Comic Book Concept
Black Veil Brides are expected to return later this year with a new concept album titled The Phantom Tomorrow. During a chat with Cutter's Rockcast (viewed below), singer Andy Biersack revealed more of the idea behind the album and added that it will be bolstered by a comic book release.
The vocalist revealed, "In our society, we have this, especially now, this love of building up heroes and obsessing over other people who often don't give a shit about you or anybody else, and we kind of have these false idols and heroes. And so the story is kind of about taking this mythological character and the people putting all of this power on to them, and then ultimately turning their back on the character because nobody can fulfill the dreams and ideas that you put on somebody else."
He adds, "It's an alternate version of our own timeline where our obsession with heroes and the iconography of somebody that's aspirational kind of gets out of control and [it] becomes our whole society."
Biersack also confirmed that there's a comic book in the works as well. "I actually just got off the phone this morning with the publishing company for the comic book. We're developing all the artwork and everything for that," he explained.
According to Biersack, he started writing in January of 2020 and had an idea for a story. "I do a lot of drawing when I'm writing as well. I'm not great, but I like to be able to represent my ideas in that way. So I wrote out this whole story and drew character designs, and then, about a week and a half later, we were set to enter the studio, and it just kind of coincidental that this whole rush of this idea came to me," he adds.
"I tried to keep this one more open-ended where it's applicable," says Biersack about the narrative. "'Cause I didn't wanna write about stuff I don't know; I wanted it to be about my experience. And there's really nothing about our story that doesn't mimic the current situation, whether it's on a personal level with people that I've known, or on a sociopolitical level, with the craziness of the world right now. The ideas are universal, and so that made it a little bit easier to kind of get through the journey."
Biersack and Black Veil Brides gave fans their first taste of new music last fall with the single "Scarlet Cross." Stay tuned for more music as the year unfurls.