Metz: "Strange peace is the moment before everything goes to hell"

Metz live life on the edge. The Toronto trio teeter perilously close to the brink of chaotic destruction but succeed gloriously in making their white-hot charge hit the sweet spot every time. Perhaps living on their nerves has fuelled their third album and strongest statement yet, ‘Strange Peace'. "It's never a comfortable time," begins singer and guitarist Alex Edkins. "I know that I'm always on pins and needles. It's part of it. You open it up to the world, and you go, here, we made this." What they've made is a record that rages with pent up aggression, and this time they really know how to target it. There was no danger of Metz tiredly repeating a successful formula. "There were efforts from all three of us to break any kind of cycle that may have subconsciously built over time," explains Alex. "We wanted to make something brand new, and I think that's what you get with this record." With this album, there are some changes in Metz' working methods that give ‘Strange Peace' added potency and vigour. The band wrote the same way they always do, but decamping to Chicago with Steve Albini allowed them to really cut loose. "We were at a confidence level where we didn't feel any pressure to live up to anybody's expectations," says Alex. With the band's previous albums, 2012's breakthrough debut and its equally invigorating 2015 follow up ‘II', although they were extremely well received there was a degree of stress that this time, they let fuel them. "There was a lot of pressure on the second album," says Alex. "We stretched out, and we grew, but there were nerves involved. This time around we just threw caution to the wind, and it felt great."