''Billy Talent II'' is the second studio album by Canadian rock band

Billy Talent Billy Talent is a Canadian Rock music, rock band from Mississauga, Ontario. They formed in 1993 with lead vocalist Benjamin Kowalewicz, guitarist Ian D'Sa, bassist Jonathan Gallant, and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk. There have been no lineup change ...

, released on June 27, 2006. The album debuted at No. 1 on the

Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocea ...

, selling 48,000 copies in its first week. The album also reached No. 1 on the German albums chart. Despite its great success in Canada and Germany, the album was not as successful in the United States, where it peaked at No. 134 on the ''Billboard'' 200 music chart, selling just 7,231 units in its first week.

Themes

The album has less anger and language than their previous self-titled album, as they had mellowed out and matured as men and as a band. More of the songs dealt with real-life issues, to the praise of fans and critics.

Release

The band temporarily released the entire album to their MySpace page for June 23. Beginning in the fall of 2005, songs from the new album were purposely leaked by the band. A demo of "Red Flag" circulated across the internet, even though it had already appeared on the soundtracks to '' Burnout Revenge'', '' Burnout Legends'', '' SSX on Tour'', '' NHL 06'' and on the

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

compilation ''Black by Popular Demand''. "

Devil in a Midnight Mass "Devil in a Midnight Mass" is the first single released from Billy Talent's second album, ''Billy Talent II''. Song information There are two differing versions of the song: the album version, and an unpolished demo version released in December ...

" was the first single. A demo of the song was released on MySpace and

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on Christmas Day of 2005, and the official single was released on April 20, 2006. "

Red Flag Red flag may refer to: * Red flag (idiom), a metaphor for something signalling a problem ** Red flag warning, a term used by meteorologists ** Red flag (battle ensign), maritime flag signaling an intention to give battle with no quarter (fight to ...

" was released as the second single. A video for it was shot on July 21, 2006, in Los Angeles. The day after its debut, the band performed an ''Intimate & Interactive'' outdoor concert on

MuchMusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31 ...

in the

CHUM-City Building 299 Queen Street West, also known as Bell Media Queen Street or Bell Media Studios, is the headquarters of the television/radio broadcast hub of Bell Canada's media unit, Bell Media located at the intersection of Queen Street West and John Stre ...

parking lot in Toronto, Ontario. They were also interviewed by Much VJ Devon Soltendieck, and asked questions from viewers via telephone, e-mail, and videophone.Portions of the program are available a
Muchmusic Axs
. Aired on

television June 28, 2006 " Surrender" was offered for download exclusively on Valentine's Day, 2006; it also appears on this album. According to a MuchMusic interview with the band, ''Surrender'' is supposed to be a love song. Radio recordings of that song, as well as "Covered in Cowardice", "This Suffering", and a low quality version of "Worker Bees" became available several weeks before the album's release. The music video for their third single, " Fallen Leaves", was shot on the first two days of November 2006, in Los Angeles. It was first played in Canada on Much on Demand on November 27, 2006, and worldwide the following week. The band performed a live session for Mike Davies on BBC Radio 1's The Lockup on September 12, playing the tracks "

", "

" and "

This Suffering "This Suffering" is a song by Canadian alternative rock group Billy Talent. It was released in November 2007 as the fifth and final single from their second studio album, ''Billy Talent II''. Music video The music video is a live performance vi ...

". On November 22, the band made its American premiere on the '' Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' show, performing "Red Flag". On January 12, 2007, the music video for " Fallen Leaves" was made available to watch in the UK on the rock channels Kerrang!, Scuzz and

MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television Cable television, channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel launched initially as an all-music video service, once the original MTV had started to sh ...

. In February 2007, the video for "Surrender" was shot and debuted in Germany on April.2.2007. In April 2007, the album won a

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

for best rock album of the year. Although never released as a single, the band shot a music video for "The Navy Song", released exclusively through the band's Myspace, during summer 2007. On November 26, 2007, the video for "

" was released. It was released mainly to promote the band's new live DVD '' 666 Live'', and the music video was just a collection of clips from the 666 performances.

Track listing

Personnel

Billy Talent * Ben Kowalewicz – lead vocals * Ian D'Sa – guitar, vocals *

Jon Gallant Billy Talent is a Canadian rock band from Mississauga, Ontario. They formed in 1993 with lead vocalist Benjamin Kowalewicz, guitarist Ian D'Sa, bassist Jonathan Gallant, and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk. There have been no lineup changes, although ...

– bass, backing vocals * Aaron Solowoniuk – drums Artwork *Liz Barrett – art producer *Kim Kinakin & Henry Fong – artwork *Kim Kinakin – package design *Henry Fong – cover illustration *Ian D'Sa – art direction *Dustin Rabin – photography Additional musicians * Gavin Brown – tambourine Production *Gavin Brown – producer *Ian D'Sa – producer *Eric Ratz – engineer *Steve Blair & Mary Gormley – A&R * Chris Lord-Alge – mixing *Brian Gardner - mastering *Kenny Luong – digital editing

Charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

Official band website

Interview with Ian and Jon in support of ''Billy Talent II''
*
Billy Talent
at Last.fm {{Authority control 2006 albums Billy Talent albums Atlantic Records albums Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year albums