By Craig Lindberg

Phenoms, upstarts, punks…call them what you will, the members of Black Tide have been touring the world and playing their style of rock for arena and stadium crowds alike for close to five years, opening for the likes of Bullet For My Valentine, Static X and the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy.

Black Tide’s latest effort for Interscope Records, Post Mortem, shows off the chops of a band who was often written off as just a gimmick due to their young age when they were first signed to Atlantic Records ~ all were just teenagers, and in fact the original drummer, Winder Marin, was replaced to keep the youthful image of the band intact when labels started to take interest.

Post Mortem shows a darker, more mature side of the band whose debut release, Light from Above, showcased screaming guitars, shrill vocals and had a heavy arena rock vibe.

“We tried to get away from the high-pitched 80s sound we originally started out with,” says bassist Zack Sandler. “We’ve been exposed to so many great bands of the past couple years, it’s hard not to be influenced by one or more of them.”

Post Mortem is heavier in just about every conceivable way. The guitar tone is crunchier, the songs are laden with more breakdowns than hooks while still remaining catchy, the lyrics are coming from a deeper place and even the artwork and imagery of the album differ greatly from their previous effort.

Zack shares, “We’ve done a lot of growing up and most of it’s been on the road, away from everything we were familiar with. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s tough too. The first album we wrote about the things we thought we knew, this album we wrote about some of the things we never wanted to know.”

Zack also let on that he is a huge fan of horror movies.

“The original Nightmare on Elm Street films scared the hell out of me. You knew it couldn’t be real, but it didn’t seem to matter, I was always a little bit afraid to fall asleep.” When asked about the Nightmare remake, Zack replies, “I didn’t hate it as much as others seemed to. I mean it wasn’t even close to being as scary as the original, but if you’re going to remake a movie that good, then the remake can’t completely suck.”

Black Tide can be found on the Rockstar Energy Uproar Festival touring the states as we speak.

For more information on Black Tide, check them out at www.blacktidemusic.com.