Blood, Hair, And Eyeballs

''Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs'' is the tenth studio album by American punk rock band Alkaline Trio, released on January 26, 2024 on Rise Records. It is the band's final album with longtime drummer Derek Grant, who departed from the group prior to the album's announcement.

The album was recorded at Studio 606 and produced by Cameron Webb, who had previously worked with the band on their previous studio album, ''Is This Thing Cursed?'' (2018). Its nearly six-year gap from ''Is This Thing Cursed?'' marks the longest between two albums from the band to date.

Released to critical acclaim, the album was preceded by the singles, "Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs", "Bad Time", and "Versions of You".

Background

In early 2022, Alkaline Trio began writing new material for a new studio album. While touring with Taking Back Sunday, drummer Derek Grant revealed that they had been playing new songs at soundchecks, and were preparing to record in the near future.

During the album cycle for ''Is This Thing Cursed?'' (2018), Grant took a hiatus from the band which left him absent from live performances and studio appearances from 2018 to 2021. His first performance following his hiatus was at Slam Dunk Festival 2021 in Leeds, England. However, touring continued to take a toll on Grant following the COVID-19 pandemic, and by 2023, he decided to leave the band in focus of his mental health, graphic design, and music production. Though he left the band prior to the album's announcement, it was revealed that Grant had written and recorded drums for the entirety of the album as a full participating member. Bassist and vocalist Dan Andriano confirmed that Grant left the band during the mixing process for the album.

Shortly after Grant's departure, the band announced Atom Willard as their new drummer. Willard previously toured with Alkaline Trio in 2001 and appeared in their music video for "Private Eye". He had also played with guitarist Matt Skiba in their band theHell, and the two had also recently started a new band, Lektron.

In 2022, Skiba departed from Blink-182 after seven years as its guitarist and co-lead vocalist following the return of original guitarist and vocalist Tom DeLonge. While Alkaline Trio remained active during this time, Skiba admitted that: "Trio took a bit of a backseat for a while. It’s been the longest break Alkaline Trio has taken from putting out a new album, so I felt like we owed our fans the best record we could make."

The album's title comes from a term used by Skiba's mother, who was once an emergency room nurse; "She and her co-workers referred to exceptionally busy nights as ‘blood, hair, and eyeballs.’"

Writing and recording

Recording officially began in 2023 at Dave Grohl's Studio 606, which is where Skiba and Willard had recently recorded a joint single for Lektron. Skiba stated that the trio had started to think about bands such as Nirvana, The Police and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and were excited to record in a studio "engineered for loud, live rock music." The band took a more collaborative approach to the recording and made sure to build the songs "from the ground up, in the same room which hasn’t happened since the band started."

Skiba and bassist Dan Andriano were inspired by what they referred to as "apocalypse culture," and how bad news in modern culture creates so much fear in people.

“Without sounding trite, it’s the way that we get our information now through social media. There’s always been good and there’s always been horror, but it feels like the horror hits our doorsteps much quicker these days. It gives people the feeling that things are escalating horribly.” - Matt Skiba

Release

The album was announced on October 17, 2023 alongside the release of the title track and its music video. This was accompanied by the announcement of a supporting tour with Drug Church. The album's second single "Bad Time" was released on November 30, 2023, along with a music video. The album's third single, "Versions of You", was released on January 5, 2024. The band appeared on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' on January 23, 2024 performing "Bad Time". A music video for "Break" was released on January 25, 2024.

Critical reception

Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, scored the album at 81 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim" based on 8 reviews.

Track listing

Personnel

Alkaline Trio
* Matt Skiba – guitar, vocals
* Dan Andriano – bass, vocals
* Derek Grant – drums

Additional musicians
* Jamie Blake – additional vocals (tracks 2, 4, 8, 11)
* Curtis Mathewson – keyboards (tracks 2, 11)

Production
* Cameron Webb – production, mixing
* Andrew Alekel – engineering

Charts

References

{{Alkaline Trio

2024 albums
Alkaline Trio albums
Rise Records albums