The Amity Affliction have announced a re-recorded 10th anniversary edition of “Let The Ocean Take Me.” The effort will be available on September 27 and its first single, a “redux” version of “My Father’s Son,” can be streamed below:
Vocalist Joel Birch commented:
“We wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are today without this album and the way it resonated with people around the world. This is the foundation of our band, and we owe everything we have to all of the people who listened to it and came out to our shows and continues to this day to show their love to us. This is the greatest blessing — thank you.
The album is almost entirely dedicated to addiction and the effects it had on my life and mental health. The strangest thing while re-recording this was reading the words and then reflecting on life since then, this album was the catalyst for us touring the world and turning what was just a really fun time into a career, from kids to adults, from haphazardly throwing together songs to the place where we’re at now where we feel like we put more purpose into everything we create.
I started drinking again almost immediately after this album was finished and almost blew up everything I held dear, so the album is a warning of sorts, for myself and for anyone else out there struggling with addiction. I should have been able to read what I wrote and perform these songs and have it reinforce the very thing I had written about, but addiction is a soul crusher and just swallowed me up and spat me out.
This is a chance to have some ownership over our own songs, something that we didn’t have while with our old label. Let this be the canary in the coal mine for younger bands; in this day and age, you can find ethical and equitable deals, you don’t need to believe the bullshit larger labels will feed you, and you can maintain control over your masters and own your own songs. Thankfully, we’ve always told people to get fucked when they’ve tried to meddle in our music or this could have been even worse. In any case, I hope that you guys enjoy this and give it a thrashing. We are personally much happier with this new recreation.”