Staind is going to 'Break the Cycle' next summer!

LOS ANGELES (Staind Fans Website) - Staind will release the follow-up to their 2001 breakthrough Break the Cycle next summer. They recently finished recording seventeen songs for the album with producer Josh Abraham, who also worked on Cycle, in Los Angeles.

Guitarist Mike Mushok says he and his band mates have moved a step beyond their trademark angst this time around, and the result is a more balanced set.
"There's definitely songs that are very aggressive," he says, "as well as songs that have the potential to be softer, and everything in between... I think the songwriting is better than the last record. Lyrically, we have three records out there where there's somebody singing about a lot of problems they had and subjects that weren't always the most uplifting. Now, [singer Aaron Lewis] is at a place where there isn't anything really bad going on in his life. He's not going to be singing about skipping through tulips, though."

A couple of the songs, according to Mushok, are "atmospheric" and "spacey." "They're more open," he says. "There's one song in particular where there's this harmonic part that's really simple, and it's a six-and-a-half minute song that really takes you somewhere. There's one other song that Aaron wrote about his daughter Zoe Jane. It's a really very gentle, pretty song."

Also likely to make the final track listing is a tribute to late Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley, for now titled simply "Layne."
"Aaron started singing the lyrics, and I came up with a riff that reminded me of something that might have been out of that era," Mushok says. "The harmonies are very reminiscent of Alice in Chains. It's Aaron honoring him by saying how Layne helped him through stuff with his lyrics."