A quest for knowledge, quest to see / all these things inside of me / looking in, there’s something wrong / I must set out on my own

If there is any hope that Rock N Roll can change the world, as Valient Thorr believe it can, people are going to have to start to get their own personal shit together first.

In what could be viewed as a single handed, spur of the moment effort to wrestle the phrase “personal responsibility” back from the Right, Stranger, the new album from intergalactic Rock N Roll saviors, Valient Thorr eschews direct frontal attacks on politicians and their wars and instead focuses inward on personal decisions and ethical living in the world economy.

Taking lessons from legions of like minded musicians and following the musical path Valient Thorr have traveled, Stranger broadens the boundaries of what is hard and heavy, aggressive and fierce, extending an invitation to a party to be enjoyed by the heshers, head bangers, stoner rockers, thrashers, skate punks, old schoolers and the truly hardcore. If one were to imagine hearing a palpable buzz so engaging that it has its own gravitational pull, something so strong that as one is pulled closer, the buzz becomes a throb that seemingly doubles over on itself into infinity. This is the furious sound of Valient Thorr, a band whose entire being is founded and powered on the force of one huge, mass, communal headbang that has the power to deliver a unifying moment of clarity.

This may sound mystical, but in this case it is real, because as any dyed in the wool Thorrior will tell you, it is the energy of sweat soaked revelry, rather than electricity, that powers the amplifiers and drums that produce this hearty onslaught of all things future-past in the pantheon of high energy, heavy metal, ROCK n ROLL! Screeching guitar leads, low end rumble, breakneck paces and feel good shout along hooks are made to exist together, often in a single song, proving that this is the only sound possible to deliver Valient Thorr’s powerful message of positive change and transformation.

Anyone that has ever sweated and headbanged can get with this.

Touring relentlessly since 2001 after crash landing in the North Carolina Triangle area, a place they now call home, Valient Thorr have this year already criss-crossed the U.S. on the Volcom Tour with Mastodon, Between The Buried and Me, Baroness and are currently in the midst of a European tour that will keep them abroad through the end of July and includes festival appearances at Hellfest, Roskilde, Serengeti and Rock Im Ring, before returning stateside for a massive U.S. headline tour set to kick off in September.

Produced, recorded and mixed by Jack Endino (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Dwarves, High On Fire, Toxic Holocaust), Stranger, set for release on September 14, 2010 is Valient Thorr’s fifth album in seven years. A considerable feat since they have been averaging close to 250 shows a year for most of this time with acts as varied as Motörhead, Joan Jett and the Black Hearts, Eagles of Death Metal, Gogol Bordello, Fu Manchu, Early Man and Skeleton Witch.

To get right down to it, Stranger fuses together the roots-rock, no-bullshit beginnings of Stranded on Earth and Total Universe Man with the laser guided immediacy of Legend Of The World and the total metal shredding of Immortalizer, into one supernova burst.