AWOLNATION Mark Album Release With 'Barbarian' Video

08-30-2024

(BPM) AWOLNATION have shared a music video music video for "Barbarian" to celebrate the arrival of their new full length album, 'The Phantom Five' today. Composed of ten tracks, Aaron Bruno aka AWOLNATION says he "wrote this album with the intention that it could possibly be the final AWOLNATION album". It includes the previously released singles and music videos for "Panoramic View", "Jump Sit Stand March' feat. Emily Armstrong and "I Am Happy" feat. Del The Funky Homosapien.

"I've always wanted to make something like Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game"'," says Aaron Bruno on the video. "This video is nothing like that, because nothing could be like that beautiful video - but we had fun finding and shooting it at the same location with a sarcastic twist on the concept."

On the song, he explains "I read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka before I wrote this record, and I love the concept of me transforming from this AWOLNATION project into new projects like my new Barbarians of California hardcore metal thrash project. That's the conflict of the song, and it was inspired by a guy changing into a bug."

'The Phantom Five' is a collection of ten songs that highlights every different impulse and urge Bruno has learned to master with AWOLNATION in a cohesive, anthemic pastiche of modern music. It functions almost as a "greatest hits" album, in the sense that it offers something for everyone who has followed the band's arc in its celebrated, shape-shifting way. 'The Phantom Five' is concerned with trying to find one's way to happiness in a bizarrely upside-down time.

"I wrote this album with the intention that it could possibly be the final AWOLNATION album," continues Bruno. "I wanted the challenge and inspiration of that idea. I'm not sure if it will actually be the last album, but I wanted to create that narrative to push myself with it and put everything I have into these songs."