It’s been 15 years since the last record from Armor For Sleep, but the band has remained a staple of many of their fans’ daily listening routine. Today, the seminal post-hardcore act made their highly-anticipated return with The Rain Museum, a 12 song collection that is equal part beautiful and devastating. The Rain Museum is an album that was initially intended to be a straight-up concept album based off of a short story penned by frontman Ben Jorgensen. The concept was built around a post-apocalyptic world where weather no longer exists on planet earth and people come to a mysterious museum in the middle of the desert to look back on what life used to be like. Originally planned as the follow up to What to Do When You Are Dead, the album had been shelved due to “bad advice” leading the band in another direction. Fast forward to the global pandemic of 2020, and the events of the real world encouraged Jorgensen to revisit the concept. Concurrently, his marriage of eight years began to fall apart, leaving Jorgensen to further infuse the science-fiction story with elements of his real life. The resulting record draws upon the best elements of Armor For Sleep’s catalog while incorporating elevated songwriting and composition. You can stream the record now from Equal Vision Records.
Alongside The Rain Museum, Armor For Sleep shared the official music video for “New Rainbows” today – completing a trio of breathtaking visuals directed by Jesse Korman (Hot Water Music, The Juliana Theory). With an aesthetic that lies somewhere between Panic At The Disco’s “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” and Radiohead’s “Karma Police”, the video masterfully captures the shoegaze-y melancholy of “New Rainbows”. It’s a sad but beautiful culmination to the three part series that once again proves Armor For Sleep’s commitment to delivering meaning with every piece of art released around an album.
Singer/Songwriter, Ben Jorgensen, on the release of The Rain Museum:
It’s been a journey to get back to this point, but we couldn’t be more excited to share our new album with everyone. The reaction to the new songs so far has been amazing to see. We are very lucky to have the fans that we have in our corner. Thank you to everyone who has been following along with us!
Tracklisting:
1. The Rain Museum
2. How Far Apart
3. See You On The Other Side
4. World Burn Down
5. In This Nightmare Together
6. New Rainbows
7. I’m Not Myself
8. Whatever, Who Cares
9. Rather Drown
10. A Teardrop On The Surface Of The Sun
11. Tomorrow Faded Away
12. Spinning Through Time
Fronted by singer/songwriter, Ben Jorgensen, Armor For Sleep are considered one of the defining bands of the emo/post hardcore genre. Their beloved concept album, What To Do When You Are Dead, has sold over 400,000 copies worldwide, and found them touring the world alongside acts such as Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park, and My Chemical Romance. Their just-released 3rd full-length, The Rain Museum, finds the band back home on Equal Vision Records where their career started. It is arguably their most ambitious record to date, and the first two singles “How Far Apart” and “Whatever, Who Cares” have been met with both fan and critical acclaim.