Few things make me more proud than to see hardworking, talented bands reaching success – whether that success is making a few albums and touring for 5-6 years and calling it a day, or sustaining continued growth over a decade and seeing their fanbase explode overnight, both are equally interesting to me. You could place progressive rock/metal band Erra in either category at the moment, though the one outlier here is that they’re not going anywhere but up from here. They recently landed the main support slot on August Burns Red’s upcoming tour, and just finished a run supporting The Plot In You. This isn’t even speaking of the band overcoming multiple vocalist and member changes that would torpedo a lesser band, and this still isn’t including their most recent album, Drift. Fans may have to get used to the slight change in style (from arguable magnum opus Augment to where they’re at now), but rest assured the slightly more accessible direction wasn’t a sellout move – it was the one that made sense. When you make an album that’s bookended by the strongest tracks the band has recorded to date (“Luminesce” and “The Hypnotist”), you’re a band that’s evolving the right way.
“I’m influenced by bands like Deftones, Circa Survive, and Saosin, and influences from those bands were incorporated on the new record”, Jesse said of Drift. “You’ll find all those influences on Drift, but without leaving our old fans behind. It’s our most divisive record”, Cash said. Considering how good Impulse and Augment were, it’s only fair to give Drift a good shot.
When I asked Jesse about how the band was able to chart so high in the Billboard Top 200, it boiled down to this. “Our fans really came out to support this album. It’s what I consider our biggest accomplishment yet, and waiting until after the release to stream it on Spotify helped. First week sales have also enabled us to get much bigger opportunities as a band”, Jesse intimated. Given Erra’s direct support to August Burns Red on their upcoming tour, it’s clear that album sales do have a big impact on what tours and festivals a band will get on (or not).
Jesse Cash had something really great to say about the minor criticism that Drift has garnered in response to an AMA he did earlier in the year:
I care a lot about our music, so therefore care a lot about criticism. the people who write intelligible words about the music are the people i listen to, whether its positive or negative. people that say things like ‘sucks’ or ‘chorus is literally bad’ are literally the dumbest fucking people so i feel like i grow dumber by applying any consideration to those types of comments. im slowly learning to take criticism for what it is and just accept it and not linger on it. i used to listen TOO much and was always too scared to write anything divisive so i kept writing ‘safe’. with drift, i just decided to write cool songs and not worry myself about how divisive it would be, because i absolutely knew some people would say its too different. i recently saw a great interview with stephen carpenter of deftones where he was asked ‘what can fans expect from “gore”, and he replied “nothing, dont set any expectations or youre going to be disappointed”. look deeper into that and its very profound, and my new perspective on the matter. people are always waiting to size you up and tear you apart, but im learning to block it out and do my own thing while still keeping the fans that i appreciate happy. listen to “drift” for what it is and what erra is, not what Erra was, and you’ll realize that is a great record, and the one that i am the most proud of.
At the end of the day, Erra is a band doing things the right way. Vaulting from respected indie label Tragic Hero Records to juggernaut Sumerian Records, the future is very bright. Drift is an energetic metal album that is as catchy and anthemic as it is passionate and articulate. It’s bound for multiple year-end “best of” lists. Listen to it below.
