“It’s a concise, efficient album. That was the point,” says drummer Jean-Paul Gaster. “We really tried to reign in the jam aspect of the band. We like to improvise a lot, but this album, we really wanted stuff mapped out. We wanted to go into the studio fully armed to make a really powerful record.” That songwriting simplicity is also indirectly a result of the Basket Of Eggs EP issued two years ago with the Weathermaker re-release of Blast Tyrant. “That acoustic stuff represents a new style of writing for us. We had almost two years to spend on the writing process, and we had a lot of ideas. Having two years allowed us to trim the fat.” adds bassist Dan Maines.

The album was entirely plotted out before recording even started at The Machine Shop in Belleville, NJ, with veteran producer Machine. “When you hear a light shuffle, or the brushwork on ‘Gone Cold,’ at first it can be a head-scratcher,” says Fallon. “But when you join in, you will be taken to a place you wouldn’t have gone by yourself. That lyrical reference on ‘Crucial Velocity’ kind of fuels Earth Rocker as a whole with that back story.”

“I think this record comes closer to really capturing that energy of Clutch live. It’s a very balanced album. There’s no B-side material. It’s an album of A-sides. That sounds pretty bold and confident, but that’s the way we feel about Earth Rocker.”