UK metalcore stalwarts Bury Tomorrow have been busy making waves over the last few years, playing countless shows and major festivals to fans all over the world. Now, with their fifth studio album Black Flame on the cusp of its July 13 release, we spoke with vocalist Dani Winter-Bates about his thoughts on the new album, what new music he's currently digging and more! Scroll down for the full chat:

You’re currently in the thick of the European summer festival circuit. How’s it all been going?
Yeah it’s been going really well man, we’re currently in Germany doing a couple of headline shows out here and then we're heading out to do some more festivals for a bit so we're really busy but it's been great.

Congrats on Black Flame – we really dig the huge singalongs and breakdowns, and it seems like you’re flying the metalcore flag higher than ever in 2018. How did you envision the album turning out compared to your previous ones?
I think for us it was a real conscious effort this time to push ourselves. I mean, we try and push ourselves with every album, but this time we wanted to push the production element of it and push ourselves to be able to rip apart songs and really make these all single songs. Every song on this album we wanted it to be able to be released as a single. So this is one of those times where I think we’ve succeeded in that and it’s a real hard thing to do but we got there this time.

Your last album Earthbound was put together in just six weeks while you were on tour. Was the writing process very different this time around?
I think the writing process was pretty similar, but what we had the benefit of this time was we had a lot of pre-production which let us sit and tear apart songs. We kind of went into every element thinking no song is good enough which made everything much better. By being able to scrutinise it like that we were able to make sure we were super happy with every song on there. So this time we spent a lot more time in the studio which resulted in better tracks overall.

Could you tell us a bit about the Black Flame movement behind the album?
So Black Flame is kind of the iconography behind our fanbase, you know - they are the black flame and for us we’re all about connecting people around the world. We did the Spread the Flame campaign so people could find out in their area if there’s anybody else into our band and so for us, all we want to do is connect our fans and keep spreading it.  It’s good because not only can we reach more people, but fans can find other like-minded people and not feel as alone as some people may do in their hometown.

When the Black Flame single was initially released, some fans claimed they could hear a lot of static in the audio which led to its deletion with 100,000 views and a re-upload of a fixed version shortly after. What happened there?
Yeah so what happened was… on this album we tried to really push the extending of the drum side of things, you know, push the high end but also the sonic sub bass as well. So after mastering when we uploaded it onto YouTube when it digitally rendered, it just really compressed that part of the mix which is something we’d never heard of before and we didn’t know until we uploaded it. Unfortunately it’s just one of those things but you know what, our fans have got a better ear and are more in tune to what they like so at the end of the day, the views for the video can come and go but they know best. So we just thought we’d get it sorted and take it down and then re-mastered it to fix it up.

What have you been listening to lately?
I’ve actually been listening to Jason from Letlive’s new band The Fever 333. I think they’re a really good band and smashing it in their own right at the moment. I really like the political movement they push as well. They’re killing it!

I know As I Lay Dying are a big influence on your band. What did you think of their new song?
I think it’s a great song. No doubt they’re masters at what they do, masters at writing heavy and melodic music with huge choruses. As a standalone song it’s great for sure. I think the whole thing with that band right now is a weird one, really. I mean, how far does it go? It’ll be interesting to watch that journey and watch what that band does. I don’t know where I morally stand on it, but the song itself is really good.

What pre-show rituals do you absolutely have to do?
Recently we’ve been listening to the new Sevendust album every single time, it’s just become a thing (laughs). It’s a great record and it really gets you amped. Me and Jason both warm up for quite a while before we go on stage, like, it doesn’t matter if we’re playing thirty minutes or an hour and a half, we usually do the same warmups just to get ourselves in the zone. Really we all just hang out and make sure everyone’s in a good place before we all go on.

How is it being in a band with your own brother? I’m sure the family element makes things interesting at times.
Yeah I mean no doubt things can be interesting, but when you’ve been in close proximity with three other guys for so long, family connections or not, you all end up becoming family anyway. I’ve massively compartmentalised my relationship with my brother and it would be unfair for me to treat anyone else in a different way just because they’re not related to me. So from my perspective we are all on an even kilt where we can have those difficult conversations like a family.

That’s one thing about your lineup – it’s been so consistent since Kristian joined five years ago and it works so well that it’s hard to see another incarnation of the band in the future.
Yeah I fully agree man. I think this will be the last lineup for Bury Tomorrow whether it’s two years from now or twenty years from now. This is how we write best and play our best live shows, for sure.

The band has grown a lot over the last few years; we remember seeing you here in 2014 opening for I Killed The Prom Queen and The Ghost Inside, but then we missed you on your next tour cycle for Earthbound! Any chance we’ll see you back here soon?
I think so. We’re absolutely blessed now to be on Music For Nations because their networking is absolutely crazy and they also give us the opportunity to get to those places that we wanted to go back to. It was never a conscious decision from a band point of view [to skip Australia] – we loved Australia and our Australian fans and we started making real headway in that short time we were over there. But there’s no doubt we’ll be coming back on this album campaign!

Black Flame is out on July 13. You can check out the first two singles below:

Listen to Bury Tomorrow now.