Fusing smouldering intensity with existential exploration, the latest track Visiting Hours from Aussie rock legends The Butterfly Effect continues the quartet’s passionate journey towards the release of their long-awaited fourth studio album: the aptly titled IV, with the official release date today unveiled to be September 2. An emphatic anthem that harks back to earlier Butters territory while staunchly showcasing the group’s ongoing evolution, Visiting Hours is another triumphant peek into the brand new LP that will arrive 14 years after its predecessor, 2008’s The Final Conversation of Kings.
With a stacked national tour also on the cards from late September into October, the band’s first full tour since 2019, fans can catch old and new favourite tunes across the country, with Ben Hall, Clint Boge, Glenn Esmond and Kurt Goedhart, aka The Butterfly Effect, bringing local heavies Thornhill and Caligula’s Horse along for the ride, kicking off in Cairns at Tanks Art Centre on September 30 before hitting Townsville, Mackay, Toowoomba, Brisbane, Sydney, Hobart, Melbourne and Adelaide before bringing proceedings to a close in Fremantle on October 16. And for fans in Melbourne who missed out on tickets to the sold out October 14 show at Northcote Theatre, The Butterfly Effect have also confirmed a second Melbourne show at Northcote Theatre set for October 13. For tickets and information, head to www.thebutterflyeffectband.com.au.
Visiting Hours unfurls with haunting guitar work courtesy of axe-man Kurt before steadily building a world of melodic beauty and oscillating beats around frontman Clint‘s raw yet intimate vocals. A dark, brooding and, ultimately, optimistic outing that draws inspiration from the likes of Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Tori Amos and Kate Bush, Visiting Hours showcases an assured and steady technicality from the Brisbane quartet, with the occasional heavier textures signposting the band’s rockstar status alongside sparser moments juxtaposing previous riff-heavy singles like Nil By Mouth and So Tired. An instant and unmistakable The Butterfly Effect opus, Visiting Hours holds a special place for the band while lyrically traversing life and the human condition, as Clint explains, “It feels amazing as always to be releasing new music and I really think this song is one of our best. To me it is about our eternal search for meaning and worth. It’s about the human condition and an existential crisis that faces us all, but at the same time as asking questions it has an undertone of hope and I hope that resonates with everyone that listens to it.” Echoing Clint‘s sentiments, bass player Glenn shares, “This is probably my favourite of the new songs. I’ve loved this tune ever since we first demoed it back in 2009. I’m so excited that everyone’s going to finally get a chance to hear it. All of us in the band have acutely felt the passing of time, and I think Clint’s words reflect this. Our time here, as people and as artists, is very fleeting. Life is delicately impermanent and we’re never guaranteed a second chance.”
Following a chance meeting at a gig back in 2017 between Kurt and Clint, absence had entirely made the heart grow fonder following Clint‘s departure from the band in 2012 and the ultimate disbanding of The Butterfly Effect announced back in 2016. And from fortuitous meetings to reuniting the original lineup back in 2018, The Butterfly Effect soon set their sights on album #4, bringing in the likes of Forrester Savell, Nick DiDia, Matt Bartlem, Clint Vincent, Luke Palmer and Stuart Stuart to bring various pieces of the new release to life; and the end result for IV is nothing short of electrifying. Journeying through love and hate, gains and losses, highs and lows, life and death and beyond, IV burrows into themes of dreams and the realities of the dichotomies of life, as well as the variables we all face on a daily basis. Opening with hazy, brooding intensity via title track IV, the broader IV album brushes with soaring melodics (Dark Light), crushing textures (The Other Side), searing riffage (Nil By Mouth) and a horde of inspiration from the likes of Faith No More, Gojira, Jeff Buckley and Deftones. Showcasing The Butterfly Effect at their most elegantly ferocious and focused to date, there’s significant balance throughout IV between show-stopping rock and riffing roar alongside significantly hard-hitting thematics, as Glenn elaborates, “It feels like there’s lots of contemplation of death and rebirth. Disconnection and then reconnection. The temporary nature of time, the passing of dreams, getting older, dealing with change, finding new meaning in life. All of these are completely understandable when you consider the history of the band over the last 10 years and where we all find ourselves as we get older”.
A band significantly well-versed in writing, recording and life on the road, The Butterfly Effect remain one of the all-time Australian greats of their generation, from their critically-acclaimed previous releases to their voracious live shows, both at home and abroad. And while the upcoming new album may be arriving at a very different stage of life, both for the band personally and their legion of lifelong fans, IV is a textbook example of expecting the unexpected, offering a chance for a collection of songs to finally leap into the world alongside freshly written material, as Clint shares, “I am so happy we got here to this point in time. Some of these songs were written straight after Final Conversation of Kings and would have been on the next album had we stayed together. So for these songs to see the light of day and for us to be able to present them to all who wish to listen is a huge privilege and a moment I won’t forget.”
Fans can look forward to a healthy mix of new Butters tunes alongside plenty of fan favourites when The Butterfly Effect take to stages to celebrate IV later this year, and the band themselves couldn’t be more excited to make their way around Australia armed with their brand new album. Of the upcoming shows, Clint says, “I’m excited about all the shows from the smaller stages in the north where it’s up close and super personal to the bigger stages and bigger rooms down south, it’s going to be great getting back out there”. And while fans are already ecstatic about the impending tour, with the original Melbourne date already sold out and a second one jumping in for good measure, the band can’t wait to hit the road, as Glenn concludes, “I’m most excited about playing fantastic new songs. The familiar faces of fans that have been supporting us for so long. The camaraderie with the crew and the other guys in the band. Life can be pretty busy, and the opportunities to socialise and hang out seem to get fewer as we get older. Beers, shit talk, fried food from the servo, I am going to enjoy every moment”.
Tickets for The Butterfly Effect’s upcoming national tour are on sale now from www.thebutterflyeffectband.com.au.
Visiting Hours is out today, Friday July 15.
IV is set for release on September 2.
THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT – IV 2022 TOUR:
with guests Thornhill & Caligula’s Horse
Tickets available from: www.thebutterflyeffectband.com.au
FRI 30 SEPT | TANKS ARTS CENTRE, CAIRNS, QLD | 18+
SAT 1 OCT | MANSFIELD HOTEL, TOWNSVILLE, QLD | 18+
SUN 2 OCT | HARRUP PARK, MACKAY, QLD | 18+
THUR 6 OCT | BLANK SPACE, TOOWOOMBA, QLD | 18+
FRI 7 OCT | EATONS HILL HOTEL, BRISBANE, QLD | 18+
SAT 8 OCT | UNSW ROUNDHOUSE, SYDNEY, NSW | 18+
SUN 9 OCT | HOBART UNI BAR, HOBART, TAS | 18+
THUR 13 OCT | NORTHCOTE THEATRE, MELBOURNE, VIC | 18+ *NEW SHOW*
FRI 14 OCT | NORTHCOTE THEATRE, MELBOURNE, VIC | 18+ *SOLD OUT*
SUN 15 OCT | HINDLEY ST MUSIC HALL, ADELAIDE, SA | 18+
SUN 16 OCT | METROPOLIS, FREMANTLE, WA | 18+
THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT – IV – Tracklisting
IV
Dark Light
So Tired
The Other Side
Wave of Tides
Unbroken
Nil By Mouth
Great Heights
Start Again
Visiting Hours
