Burn Halo's Heavy Rock War

Oct. 1, 2015

Orange County, Cal. — a strange little pocket of SoCal that’s spawned a long list of bands and solo acts ranging from No Doubt and Matchbox Twenty to The Offspring, Aloe Blacc, Cold War Kids…and Burn Halo, the hard rockers now on tour and making a stop in Kalkaska.

BLENDING SOUNDS

Founded in 2007 when singer James Hart left his band, Eighteen Visions, and landed a new label deal, Burn Halo has shared stages with Avenged Sevenfold, Puddle of Mudd, Static-X, and Adema, among others. Now they’re headlining their own Wolves of War tour to promote their brand new studio album of the same name.

“We wanted to make an album where we could blend our hard rock and metal influences,” Hart said, “and we felt that Fred Archambault would be a great fit as a producer to pull that out of us.”

Archambault, who’s worked with Atreyu, Lostprophets, Kay Hanley and Avenged Sevenfold, also worked with Hart on Eighteen Visions’ 2003 Obsession album.

“I really loved working with him,” Hart said. “The Avenged guys used him on three of their albums, as well, and loved what he brought to the table. We felt very confident in his body of work, that he would make a great album with us.”

PLANNING AHEAD

Burn Halo spent nearly a year writing the album, sending ideas back and forth from Sacramento (Hart’s home base these days) to Orange County until they felt they were ready for pre-production.

“We spent about a month in pre-production and proper studio time, tracking up in Los Angeles at The Hobby Shop [studio],” Hart said. “During that time we came out with a couple of late new songs that ended up being great fits on the album.”

With extensive rehearsal and pre-pro time, the band got through their recording sessions fairly quickly, “which allowed for time to screw around,” Hart said.

“It helped to lighten the mood,” he said.

“This was the first big album for a couple of the guys, so it’s always good to mess around a bit and take the pressure off.”

MAKING AN IMPRESSION

The result, Wolves of War, is full of impressively improvised guitar solos, heavy low tones and emotional performances.

“Dying Without You,” the set’s first single, is actually based on an older riff guitarist Joey Roxx used to play during tour sound checks.

“When we were about five or six songs into writing, I asked him about that riff again and told him to work it into a song,” Hart said. “‘Dying Without You’ was one of those songs that took a lot of time to write musically, trying different parts and tempos to get the right feel and flow.”

Hart said they also put a lot of effort into building the setlist for the live shows, mixing it up with old and new songs.

“We never had such a catalogue to pull from before, so this time it was a bit harder,” he said, “but we love the energy that the new songs bring to the show. It’s an intense, but fun, experience for us and for our fans.”

Burn Halo’s The Wolves of War Tour will be live with guests Heartist and Courage My Love at Kalkaska’s Up North Grill on Monday, Oct. 5 at 5pm. Tickets are $15 at obscurrus.com.