LP - $19.40 / CD - $12.00
STREET DATE: 04/24/26
CAT#: CRR57
LABEL: Church Road
‘The Earth is Breathing Beneath Me’ isn’t a metaphor. It’s a realisation that the ground beneath our feet is alive, and we’re all just passengers on its pulse. It’s that hum of dread and wonder that defines Armed For Apocalypse’s fourth full-length album: a towering, grooved-out, post-metal monolith carved from grief, power, and purpose.
Formed in Chico, California between longtime friends Nick Harris (drums) and Cayle Hunter (guitar), Armed For Apocalypse is a what-if turned war machine. Over the years, the band has endured enough shakeups and setbacks to bury most acts: relocations, divorces, day jobs, family changes and not to mention complete lineup overhauls. But where others fractured, AFA sharpened.
Now based in Portland, Oregon, the current lineup consisting of drummer Harris, guitarist/vocalist Nate Burman, bassist Charlie Fischer and vocalist Hunter - the band has found rare continuity and it shows. ‘The Earth is Breathing Beneath Me’, recorded once again with Kurt Ballou at God City Studios, is the sound of a band not just surviving, but thriving in their chaos. The guitars sound raw and intimidating. The drums hit like wrecking balls while the bass shakes the very ground you stand on. Burman’s vocals slice through the noise with a sense of finality - desperate, powerful, unafraid to hope, even while drowning.
“This album is bleak,” the band says. "It’s got dissonance and aggression and every song carries a sense of melancholy and density beneath the surface. But there are also moments of meditation, and even signs of optimism woven in that make it feel like a true reflection of who we are as people.”
Opening track Drown sets the tone, a flag planted deep in the soil, daring you to stay. From there, the band moves with purpose through blast beats, dynamic sludge, ambient stretches, and raw-throated catharsis. This isn’t a genre exercise. It’s a record written by a band with doom and hardcore in their DNA playing sludge, or maybe something else entirely. What it is, more than anything, is honest.
Offstage, the members of AFA have wildly differing interests, from yoga to culinary experimentation. What unites them is more than riffs, it’s brotherhood, therapy, a shared refusal to stop. “We’ve heard it our whole career,” they say. ‘You guys are too nice to be in a heavy band.’ But the music is why we’re happy. It’s how we stay alive.”
The Earth is Breathing Beneath Me isn’t just their best record, it’s their most vital. It’s not here to sell you on a scene or posture for the algorithm. It’s here to crush, connect, and release. If you’re ready for that, they’ll meet you at the edge of the world.
TRACK LISTING:
01. DROWN
02. ASHES OF THE NIGHT
03. SPELLBOUND
04. FISTS LIKE FEATHERS
05. BEYOND THE MIRAGE
06. IMMORTAL
07. LOST WITHOUT A LIGHT
08. KEEP UP APPEARANCES
09. LURK
10. BATHED IN A TEPID POOL OF MY OWN FILTH
11. THE EARTH IS BREATHING BENEATH ME
FOR FANS OF:
Crowbar, Sepultura