After a year’s delay, Weezer has announced an official release date for their upcoming metal-inspired album Van Weezer. It is now scheduled to hit shelves on May 7.
Along with the announcement, Weezer released another new track from the album, “I Need Some Of That.” The track sees the band getting nostalgic about their youth rocking out to bands like Aerosmith and playing music, all set to an anthemic power-pop melody.
The band first mentioned work on Van Weezer back in February 2019, with frontman Rivers Cuomo telling Entertainment Weekly that they were working on something with “big guitars” that was “Blue Album-ish” and “more riffy,” saying,
“The inspiration came from our live shows, where, in the middle of “Beverly Hills,” unlike on the album, everything stops and I just break out with this crazy guitar solo. We noticed that, recently, the crowd just goes crazy when I do that. So it feels like maybe the audience is ready for some shredding again.”
According to a press release, the album, produced by Suzy Shinn, is the first time the band has taken inspiration from their harder rock past since 2002’s Maladroit. In the past, the band has mentioned that they were fans of Kiss, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Rush, Slayer and Metallica, just to name a few.
In September 2019, Van Weezer’s release date was announced for May 2020. However, due to the pandemic, recording on the album got delayed. Instead, the band moved up the release of their orchestral album, Okay Human, which came out in January 2021.
Van Weezer will now be Weezer’s 15th studio album. Since 2019, the band has released three other singles from the album, “The End Of The Game,” “Hero” and “Beginning Of The End.”
Weezer will be heading out on the rescheduled Hella Mega Tour starting in Europe on June 7 in Berlin, Germany, with North American dates starting July 14 in Seattle, WA and running through August 25 in Commerce City, CO. Along with Weezer, the tour features Green Day and Fall Out Boy, with The Interrupters joining in on all North American dates. Tickets are available on the band’s website.
