96 Bitter Beings to Release Re-Recorded CKY Hits for Return To Hellview, “Flesh Into Gear” Streaming Now
If you’re of a certain age, then you remember a much simpler time when everyone was playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater and your buddy showed you a VHS tape of gross and painful stunts called Landspeed: CKY. At that time, king among the jackasses was a little band from Pennsylvania called CKY. Fast forward a couple decades and that band’s founding guitarist, vocalist and primary songwriter Deron Miller left CKY and created a new band called 96 Bitter Beings.
Earlier today, it was announced that 96 Bitter Beings was going back to Miller’s roots by releasing a compilation of re-recorded tracks from his CKY days next month titled Return To Hellview. According to Miller, the chance to revisit those songs was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
“Revisiting these songs was a blast. I hadn’t heard the original versions in so long but I was able to get a lot of the re-recordings done just from memory. When the recording process got down to covering specific details of all the tracks, that’s when I went back and listened to the original versions.
“I love all the songs but there’s always been issues that bothered me about the originals. A lot of my problems with them were arbitrary and not that important…things that I just wanted to fix that most listeners wouldn’t even notice. But there were some things I wanted to add to these songs and some things I wanted to take out. The goal was to challenge myself to redo these classic tracks in a way that they could be heard as remixes instead of re-recordings. I think we succeeded.
“I hope a lot of fans will hear this album as remixes of the originals. Not many bands have access to the original masters that are owned by record companies and therefore don’t have the option to remix anything. We’re excited to see the response.”
To get fans hyped for what could be an interesting release, the first single dropped was a huge one in the form of “Flesh Into Gear.” Speaking of that insanely popular track, Miller said he was excited that he was able to record it exactly how he originally envisioned it.
“‘Flesh Into Gear’ was a sizeable hit for me and because of that I tended to always put it under a microscope. I was never fully happy with the original’s mix. I’m finally 100% happy with it. This whole process is the result of a nutty perfectionist trying to chase that feeling of total satisfaction. I achieved it. Basically, I’m saying I won’t be doing this again 20 years from now.”
Return To Hellview will be released on June 14 via Nuclear Blast, but you can preorder your copy today.
Return To Hellview Tracklisting:
1. Flesh into Gear
2. Sink into the Underground
3. Shock and Terror
4. Inhuman Creation Station
5. Suddenly Tragic
6. The Way You Lived
7. Dressed in Decay
8. Tripled Manic State
9. Shippensburg
