Asking Alexandria back with new singer, varied style

A lot was happening in guitarist Ben Bruce’s life when his band Asking Alexandria started work on its most recent album, “The Black.” He’d just gone through a divorce. His best friend, a guitar tech for the group, had died unexpectedly. Lead singer Danny Worsnop had recently quit the band to pursue other projects.

“I was pissed off, I was upset,” Bruce said. “I think if you listen to the record, it’s a roller coaster of emotions. … You can definitely tell what sort of mood I was in when I wrote each song on the record.”

“The Black” is the British metalcore band’s fourth studio release and its first with new vocalist Denis Stoff. Bruce, 27, has been the group’s primary songwriter since its founding a decade ago, and it represents, he says, a snapshot of the tumultuous period in the wake of Worsnop’s departure.

“It’s going to be one of those records where I’ll listen to it in a few years’ time and go, ‘Thank God I’m not in that state of mind anymore.’ Hopefully,” Bruce said.

But Bruce and his band, which performs at the Knitting Factory on Thursday, aren’t strangers to shakeups. Bruce formed Asking Alexandria when he was living in Dubai as a teenager, playing under different names and a rotating roster of musicians. Upon moving back to his native England in 2008, the current band name stuck, and the lineup, barring that one big exit, has mostly remained the same.

Bruce says creative stagnation has always made him antsy: He was even itching for work during a recent vacation to Hawaii. He’s already started work on material that will ostensibly make up the band’s next album, which will mark, he says, a significant shift in style.

“It’s funny because you write a successful album that does well, and then all of a sudden you’ve got everyone breathing down your neck to recreate that album again,” Bruce said. “A lot of musicians, I think they forget why they started writing music in the first place, and it turns into this weird sort of rat race to see how quickly you can pump out a record that’s going to do as well, if not better, than your previous record.”

Asking Alexandria is probably best classified as screamo or thrash metal, and its songs typically boast ferocious, growling verses that give way to big, melodic choruses. Bruce describes “The Black,” which hit record stores in March, as a more “varied” record than the three LPs that preceded it.

“There’s songs like ‘Gone,’ which is just a massive piano ballad, and there are songs like ‘Send Me Home’ and ‘Here I Am’ that are arena rock anthems,” Bruce said. “And there’s songs like ‘Let It Sleep,’ which are just incredibly heavy. … There are other songs, like ‘Undivided,’ where you can tell how angry I was. Lyrically, I attacked Danny in this fast, punky song.

“It was an experimental time for us. It’s really important for us to keep pushing the envelope. … My philosophy is, if it’s a good song, it’s a good song, and people fall in love with it regardless.”

The last time Asking Alexandria played Spokane in 2014, it was to a sold out Knitting Factory crowd with Worsnop still on the mic. Much has changed since: Bruce became a father, started his own record label and has acted in a couple independent films.

And he’s still throwing himself into his music, he says, because he doesn’t want unpredictable beats of life to become stumbling blocks.

“This is a hard industry to be part of,” Bruce said. “As cliché as it sounds, you’ve got to roll with the punches. I’m extremely passionate, and it’s something I’ve loved doing since I was a very, very young child. Whatever gets thrown my way, I deal with it to keep this going. … You have to keep your head held high and go for it.”