Aug. 27, 2014, San Francisco – Black Map, the Bay Area outfit that features Dredg guitar player Mark Engles, Far/††† (Crosses) drummer Chris Robyn and singer/guitar player Ben Flanagan of The Trophy Fire, release their debut album, …And We Explode on Oct. 28 via Minus Head Records.
The twelve-song record was recorded at Hellam Sound in Oakland, Calif. with Producer Aaron Hellam, who had worked with The Trophy Fire in the past.
“The goal was to create a band that was really heavy and simultaneously beautiful," explains Flanagan of the reason the well-known Northern California musicians decided to join forces. “Mark and I were having beers one night, and we talked about creating a band that was heavier than anything else we had previously done before. The project set itself apart from that moment on. As a unit, we were collectively searching for that apex of heaviness and beauty at the same time.”
In the brief time since the band’s inception, the hard rock trio has been described by their hometown alt-weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, as “epic, guitar-driven, smart-art-rock-meets-anthemic-metal” with Alternative press saying the band’s music is “a recipe for weirdness, but the talented lads in Black Map make that weirdness all their own.”
Black Map recently joined Chevelle for a US tour and will re-join the band for a European outing this fall. Upcoming Black Map tour dates are:
September 12 San Francisco, CA The Independent (w/Strata)
Dates below w/Chevelle:
October 26 Manchester, UK Academy 3
October 27 Birmingham, UK Academy 2
October 28 London, UK Electric Ballroom
October 30 Antwerp, Belgium Trix
October 31 Paris, France Maroquinerie
November 3 Munich, Germany Backstage
November 4 Berlin, Germany C-Club
November 5 Cologne, Germany Stollwerk
November 6 Hamburg, Germany Knust
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