Asking Alexandria, courtesy: Sanjay Parikh.

With the return of original vocalist Danny Worsnop, English melodic metalcore luminaries Asking Alexandria are touring their momentous self-titled comeback album. The reformed lineup is set to prove its long-lasting status within rock and metal music, and its connection to the Bay Area carries some personal weight.

“There’s a song on the new album called ‘Room 138’ about Danny addressing a series of events that occurred while we were recording [2013’s] From Death To Destiny,” founding guitarist Ben Bruce said. “We thought he was out drunk somewhere, but he had overdosed in his room—room 138.”

The song’s lyrics delve into this life-threatening emergency—in which a friend of Worsnop’s drove all the way from San Francisco to Los Angeles to literally rescue him—displaying Asking Alexandria’s infamous honesty about the band members’ struggles. This realism keeps the band alive in the face of obstacles, though it now translates into a more mature context.

“When we did [2011’s] Reckless & Relentless, we were heavily into drugs and alcohol, and we were honest about that,” Bruce said. “We’re not that way anymore. We’ve been through other stuff in our lives.”

Twelve years is an accomplishment for a band with a history so turbulent, but 2017 will be remembered as a triumphant return for the pioneering loud rock outfit. According to Bruce, the rebirth was largely the result of living and learning together and apart.

“We’ve been through a lot and learned from our mistakes,” Bruce said. “You can hear that in the record.”

The transparency about struggles with substance abuse and general debauchery is now reflected in the subject matter of Asking Alexandria’s new album. Though sporting less of the metallic aggression that made the band, including guitarist Cameron Liddell, bassist Sam Bettley and drummer James Cassells famous, their commitment to wearing hearts on their sleeves persists thanks to a newfound creative freedom.

“With this new album, we promised ourselves and everyone we worked with that we’re not going to be pushed back into a corner again,” Bruce said. “We’re going to do things on our own time and our own way.”

After leaving behind the exhausting pace of rock stardom, the members were reinvigorated by reveling in the creative process that gave them comradery in the first place. Bruce likens this no-limits approach to how he felt when recording 2009’s Stand Up and Scream, claiming that the joyful experience of making that record emanates through the songs in their comeback release.

Asking Alexandria closed out the year with an album’s worth of proof that it’s not going anywhere as long as its love of making music remains. The new arena rock sound is set to take the next phase of the band by the horns. The secret track “Xplicit” provides a more direct manifestation of that youthful spunk.

“I asked our producer Matt Good, ‘remember when you’d buy a CD? There’d always be a secret track!’” Bruce said. What started as a spontaneous, nostalgic jam became the perfect secret track.

“Unbeknownst to us, Matt had hit record and captured us having fun and laughing,” Bruce said, laughing. “We made the whole thing up on the spot, Danny made up every word in the moment, and it turned out hilarious!”

From Bruce’s perspective, Asking Alexandria’s creative enthusiasm has become increasingly uncommon in modern rock—topped only by what has become a platitudinous mentality within the metalcore scene he helped kickstart in the late 2000s. The fiery anthem “Where Did It Go?” decries the complacency and self-importance left after the rise and fall of the Warped Tour circuit.

“Nobody’s trying to push the boundaries or do anything new,” Bruce said. “A lot of people say, ‘rock’s dying, and rap is the new thing.’ I think if more people raised the bar, we’d be a lot better off.”

He longs for a resurrection of the 1980s rock music mindset of “having fun, being happy and enjoying life”—a flag Asking Alexandria is more than happy to fly.

While the record is certainly more streamlined and poppy than previous albums, Bruce said Asking Alexandria’s diverse musical inspiration allows it to simultaneously reconnect the band to its roots and drive its sound forward. 

“I listen to a lot of Eric Clapton, and there are a lot of bluesy lead lines sprinkled throughout the record,” he said. “The huge sound of electronic music like Nero could inspire a guitar riff. It’s important for not getting stale or stagnant. It would be so boring to make the same record over and over again.”

The aversion to formula has driven several of Asking Alexandria’s contemporaries to tread a similar path of artistic evolution. Bruce credits fellow British metalcore titans Bring Me the Horizon for epitomizing this trend with its 2015 album That’s The Spirit. However, he believes in his own band’s niche.

“People connect with the journey that we’ve had as a band and grow alongside us,” he said. “In most situations, the crowd settles down during new songs and listens more than interacting, but I think the best part of our shows have been ‘Where Did It Go’ and ‘Alone in a Room.’ Even though they’re so new, I don’t think a single person stands still during those songs. It’s been insane.”

Follow Max Heilman at Twitter.com/madmaxx1995.