“I’m bored with the fucking pre-order and ‘three months of me telling you about it’ factor!” Stray from the Path guitarist/co-founder Tom Williams loudly declares. “I’d slightly simply give it to you!”

It’s 9 Could, and Williams has simply joined me on a video-call from his New York house. In precisely three weeks, his rap-metalcore unit will launch their newest album, Clockworked. The twist, nevertheless, is that not one of the Lengthy Islanders’ followers realize it’s coming – and so they gained’t till the day it drops.

What we’ll all later uncover nevertheless, is that this isn’t the one twist. It’s additionally going to be their remaining LP – a secret so intently guarded that Williams gained’t even reveal it on this interview. It makes the choice to surprise-announce it all of the extra distinctive.

“Individuals prefer it on Netflix, after they simply provide you with all of the episodes [at once],” the guitarist causes, answering my first query of, ‘Why?’. “For those who prefer it, you may binge it and return and watch it. And so, that’s what we’re doing.”

Stray have put out 11 albums as of Clockworked (effectively, 9 should you ask Williams, who reductions their early, self-released efforts), however that is the primary time they’ve completed issues like this. The band have been unloading forthright, political tracks for greater than twenty years now, and the gaps between their launch dates have at all times been lower than three years. After a profession that lengthy and prolific, in addition to managing a number of artists on the aspect, Williams is brazenly fed up with the standard roll-out course of.

“I handle [Canadian metalcore act] Counterparts, and we surprise-released the Heaven Let Them Die EP in November,” he says. “That’s when it actually clicked for me. Everybody was like, ‘Thank God! No fucking pre-order! The vinyl ships now!’ It’s what individuals need, and it’s what I need: I’m a shopper, too! Individuals pre-order information and generally the file doesn’t even present up the day it comes out. It’s ridiculous!”

Shock Shock

Shock-released albums are uncommon in rock and metallic, and so they’ve traditionally seen the artist in query sacrifice business success. In 2016, Avenged Sevenfold put out prog metallic odyssey The Stage with zero warning and reached quantity 4 on the US charts, down from the primary place of its two predecessors. A Day to Bear in mind took an much more dramatic slide earlier this 12 months with Huge Ole Album Vol. 1, which got here out bodily a month earlier than hitting streaming companies.

“Charting was vital in 2016, however charting in 2025, nobody cares,” Williams counters. “I get an e-mail each week about first-week gross sales and so they’re simply decrease and decrease and decrease and decrease. We charted again within the day, when it mattered, and that was cool, however proper now, it’s extra vital for me to current the file in a approach that’s enjoyable and thrilling and fulfilling.”

Although the style wherein Clockworked is charging out into the world is completely different, some issues by no means change, and Stray stay righteously livid on the powers that be. The album’s title – and art work, which depicts a naughts-and-crosses recreation that’s one transfer away from ending – alludes to how the political elite have manipulated the plenty to activate one another primarily based on such surface-level qualities as pores and skin color and gender.

“They need you to select a aspect,” explains Williams. “That’s why there’s a lyric [in the title track] that claims, ‘Open your eyelids, your ass bought clockworked!’ You fell for it! We’ve all fallen for it, sooner or later.”

Opener Kubrick Stare, which got here out as an ostensibly standalone single in February, likens social media doom-scrolling to the unhinged approach a number of characters in Stanley Kubrick’s filmography wildly gaze on the digital camera. Can I Have Your Autograph? lacerates those that nonetheless assist the Israeli army amid the atrocities in Gaza. In the meantime, Shot Caller targets CEOs who oversee corrupt healthcare corporations. It’s seemingly tragically prophetic, given Clockworked was written and recorded months earlier than UnitedHealthcare head Brian Thompson was murdered final December.

“At that time [after Thompson was shot], we had been like, ‘Fuck, ought to we drop the music?’” Williams reveals. “However then I used to be like, ‘It might simply really feel corny.’”

One other observe that the band toyed with releasing early was Fuck Them All To Hell: a takedown of each mainstream US political events that’s musically as un-subtle as its identify. “We had been supposed to place it out on election day in America,” says Williams. “We wrote and completed it whereas Biden was in workplace, so it was going to be Biden vs Trump. Horrible. Then Kamala Harris steps in. I’m no Kamala supporter, however Tim Walz had some progressive bones in his physique. We had been like, ‘Will we need to fuck with that if he’s attempting?’”

Battle Plate

All of the political songs are as fiery as their lyrics, with Drew York rapping and snarling atop Williams’ rapidfire riffs, in addition to Anthony Altamura’s bass and Craig Reynolds’ drumming. There’s vulnerability within the likes of Can’t Assist Myself, although, which is musically calmer and sees York focus on his previous dependancy battles.

“I’ve identified him since sixth grade,” Williams says of his singer, “and I’ve seen him battle with all of it. He’s gone from medicine to alcohol to pharmaceuticals, however now, Drew is totally sober. He discovered this self-discipline for himself, which is basically cool.”

As our time collectively nears its shut, I ask: is the purpose for Clockworked is to show to different artists that the same old lure of ‘single, promo cycle, album launch, tour, repeat’ will be damaged – and damaged efficiently?

“Persons are beginning to aware about that already,” Williams solutions, “as a result of it’s simple. Music listeners don’t need to wait. They don’t need to take care of bullshit. I hope artists begin considering ahead, after which everybody can take my concepts and declare they had been theirs. That’s the purpose, proper?”

Within the bigger scale of issues, primarily based each on Clockworked and the ten different diatribes they’ve unleashed beforehand, it appears Stray even have the purpose of societal upheaval. Social media dependancy, the higher courses’ greed, warfare – these are all injustices inside the new songs’ crosshairs. However, Williams doesn’t need to give away his aspirations for the band’s new music till it’s in everyone else’s ears and fingers.

“What we’ve deliberate, individuals will discover out once we drop the file,” the guitarist says. “For those who’re studying this earlier than you’ve learn our announcement… go and skim what we mentioned in our announcement.”

Because it seems, what they’ve deliberate is a coda – Clockworked will in truth be the band’s remaining file. “The 4 of us, Anthony, Craig, Drew and Tom, have been touring collectively as a unit for nearly 10 years, and now it appears like the proper time to place the band to relaxation,” that assertion learn. “We’ve gone on to make superb information collectively, tour the world, and have been lucky to realize the assist of individuals, greater than we might have requested for.”

“We get to exit on our personal accord, on a remaining file and do some remaining excursions celebrating the band one final time with the individuals who gave us an important profession,” they mentioned. “Hearken to Clockworked and hold your eyes peeled for additional touring bulletins.”

A cheerful shock wrapped in a tragic one for followers outdated and new – however one issues for positive, they’re doing every part their very own approach.

Clockworked is out now