Bristol’s hardcore punk band SVALBARD have released their much anticipated third album today, entitled ‘When I Die, Will I Get Better?’. This is their first full-length release since 2018, consisting of eight tracks written and performed by the four members – Serena Cheery (vocals, guitar), Liam Phelan (vocals, guitar), Alex Hefferman (bass), and Mark Lilley (drums).

According to a press release, the album’s title was taken from a book, and allowed SVALBARD to interpret the meaning to fit with their themes. These include mental health and suicide, heaven and religion, sexism and misogyny, and societal observations. Despite heavy lyrics, the record is tinged with hope and healing.

The singles ‘Open Wound’ and ‘Listen to Someone’ were shared in July and August respectively, and have become widely popular among fans. ‘Open Wound’ is in fact the album opener, and is described as a heavy metal foundation drenched in “melancholic melody that pervades each and every effervescent track thereafter.”

After recent sexual abuse allegations against Alex Fitzpatrick, founder of Holy Roar records who SVALBARD were signed with, the band announced that they had cut all ties with the label. Ultimately, the album was still able to be released under Church Road Records, which is the new label set up by Justine Jones, former manager of Holy Roar. Furthermore, to show their support, the band will be donating a portion of each sale to Rape Crisis.

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We are very happy to announce that we will now release “When I Die, Will I Get Better?” via Church Road Records – the new venture of former Holy Roar label manager, Justine Jones. The release date remains 25th September and pre-orders are now available from svalbard.bandcamp.com and the link in our bio Translation Loss will release the album in North America and Tokyo Jupiter will release the album in Japan, neither label having any affiliation to Holy Roar so all aspects of their release remain unchanged. We are fortunate to have worked with Justine for many years, her passion, dedication and label knowledge has been instrumental in our growth as a band. She’s a person in the music industry who genuinely cares. We are proud to be releasing this record on Church Road Records. Justine is doing everything she can to keep the release on track, however please be patient if minor delays occur along the way or if things continue to appear online under the Holy Roar label during the transition period – we will keep everyone informed via our socials of all developments. We will be donating a portion of each record sale through Church Road to Rape Crisis. We have chosen to support this charity as their centres, helplines and campaign for change against sexual assault are so desperately needed. Thank you for being understanding, supportive and patient – and to Justine and Sammy at Church Road Records for all their hard work ensuring our album still gets released. (In the interest of complete transparency, the stock that Through Love, Evil Greed and ourselves are selling was manufactured by Holy Roar and purchased from the label at cost price but will have the logo stickered over. If we did not use this stock we would have to delay the album until next year, the already pressed CDs and LPs would have to be destroyed which would be terrible for the environment and could have ended up costing us thousands of pounds. We hope you agree that this is the best course of action to help us move forward without hindrance.)

A post shared by SVALBARD (@svalbard) on Sep 18, 2020 at 2:10am PDT

SVALBARD, named after a Norwegian island group, released their first EP in 2012, touring the UK and Europe numerous times since. They collaborated with Daniel P. Carter in 2014 on the split album ‘Pariso’, before sharing their debut studio album ‘One Day All This Will End’, in 2015. This was followed by sophomore album ‘It’s Hard To Have Hope’, and now, ‘When I Die, Will I Get Better?’.

Track listing:
1. Open Wound
2. Click Bait
3. Throw Your Heart Away
4. Listen to Someone
5. Silent Restraint
6. What Was She Wearing
7. The Currency Of Beauty
8. Pearlescent