Heavy supergroup The Damned Things announce new lineup and album

The Damned Things look to be kicking things back into gear, revealing their new lineup and forthcoming new album.

Back in 2009, the unlikely pairing of Anthrax’s Scott Ian and Fall Out Boy’s Joe Trohman began to collaborate on some tunes.

Soon, the duo welcomed in a bunch of other musicians, including Every Time I Die’s Keith Buckley, Anthrax’s Rob Caggiano, and Fall Out Boy’s Andy Hurley, and adopted the name of The Damned Things.

By the end of 2010, the group had released their debut album, Ironiclast, and following an Aussie tour, the members returned to their regular bands.

While fans have been wondering when The Damned Things might release a new album, Scott Ian revealed in 2018 that the band “possibly” had an album on the way.

“We always knew with The Damned Things, it was always going to be something that we would get to do schedules permitting, because we are all in extremely busy bands,” he explained at the time.

“But look, we’re all friends and we’re all in contact with each other on a regular basis and I can say that there is, possibly, a record, but that’s all I’m going to say about it.”

Now, we’ve seen the first big announcement from the group in a long time, revealing their new album and lineup changes.

Taking to social media earlier today, The Damned Things changed their social media photos, revealing that Rob Caggiano is no longer in the group, while Alkaline Trio’s Dan Andriano steps up to fill his place.

Most excitingly though, the group have now revealed that their long-awaited second album will be released in a matter of months.

Dubbed High Crimes, the new record will be unleashed on April 26th, with guitarist Joe Trohman telling Kerrang! (via Blabbermouth) that the new release started life as an EP.

“It got to the point where we just made a whole record. The more we put into it, the more we were, like, ‘Okay, let’s just do this,'” Trohman explained. “I hate using the terms ‘organically,’ because it’s a pretty shitty buzzword, but it happened organically.”

“Honestly, I’ve been sitting with the demos for nearly two years, and I still haven’t got sick of any of it,” he explained. “I don’t listen to it in a self-serving way. I’ll listen to them and think, ‘When am I going to hate them?'”

“And every time I listen to them, I really like all these songs. It’s the first time I’ve listened to a record and found there’s not a lot I would change. With making anything, I could tweak it forever, but I think with this one, the mentality was just: go in, write these songs, and when they’re done, they’re done. Don’t overthink anything.”

“Hopefully, by approaching it in a ‘Let’s make them sound really cool and not tweak them forever’ stance, then they would be the rawest possible version. I though the last record was definitely a little flippant in production, and I just wanted to pull back on that.”

The Damned Things currently have two live dates scheduled for this May. While there’s no word yet as to when the group might return to Australia, Scott Ian is set to touch down in the country next month for Anthrax’s appearance at the Download Festival. Check out the details below.

Check out The Damned Things’ ‘We’ve Got Situation Here’:

Download Festival Australia 2019

Justice For The Damned
Aversions Crown
Devilskin
Eat Your Heart Out
The Beautiful Monument
Sum 41 (Only Aus Shows)
Pennywise (Only Aus Shows)
Thy Art Is Murder
Polaris
Twelve Foot Ninja
Slaves
Voyager

Joining….

Slayer (Final World Tour)
Judas Priest (Only Aus Shows)
Alice In Chains
Ghost
Rise Against (Only Aus Shows)
The Amity Affliction (Only Aus Shows)
Anthrax
Halestorm (Only Aus Shows)
Behemoth
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes
I Prevail
Converge
Frenzal Rhomb
Luca Brasi
Code Orange
Andy Black
The Fever 333
War On Women
High Tension
Outright
Ruins
Alien Weaponry
Justice For The Damned
Aversions Crown
Devilskin
Eat Your Heart Out
The Beautiful Monument