Lucas Stone Releases New Single, 'Carry The Black'

This Queensland metal veteran reveals all with new music as well as a new digital book.

Gold Coast's own Lucas Stone has been a member of the Queensland heavy music landscape for the better part of two decades years now, usually found fronting bands such as HELM, Tension and Scalene.

But now in 2017, Mr Stone is looking deeply inward and into his own past for what will be his most personal musical endeavour yet, starting out with the new song 'Carry The Black' (which you can stream below). The Australian musician will be releasing a new body of work this year that will aim to tell his own personal story, - both musically and literally - showing all who enter what has happened and what goes on behind all of the lyrics, the tattoos, the grey hair, the vocals and the music altogether.

Each song plucked and released from Stone's vault of new material will feature various guest artists - an array of musical and industry mates that the now middle-aged Stone has befriended over the years in this business. As for this new song 'Carry The Black' features Colin Jeffs (Tongues, ex-Aversions Crown vocalist) and Leigh Dowling (Hammers) appear as guest vocalists, while bassist Simon Reys (from Stone's very own Scalene) supplies the bottom end.

On top of that, each new track released will come with a digital chapter from a larger digital book as well, fleshing out his musical journey and songs, complete with lyrics and further footnotes for those who want something more. As such, new song 'Carry The Black' is accompanied by the work's first chapter, 'Get Born', which touches on Lucas' rather bleak tale of a near-death experience at birth, growing up in Wollongong, tales of his "punk as fuck" mother, being raised in a home that acted outside the boundaries of the law, personal anecdote warning as to why hard drug abuse is (obviously) dangerous as fuck, and plenty more.

A preface of the book's first chapter - 'Get Born' has been released as a tease, and you can read it below:

"Dearest Punter, Peer, Mate. Thank you so much for investing the time and pennies in engaging this release, in both audio and written format. I’m trying to create something different here, using the tools that the modern age provides, but also attempting to shovel up some long lost nostalgia within the approach, for you, the audience. Something that kind of takes us back to the days when we all used to froth hard on album artwork, lyrics, epic cotton, posters, the players involved, etc. just as much as the 10-grom-strongscream-a-long in that beat up old Kombi, Vulgar Display of Power snapped off at 11, on the way to your local break to rip bongs and pull into epic slabs - before life got serious.

Might be my age or it could just be that I’ve seen several stages of radical change in the record industry over the last 25 years. A lot lost, a lot gained - not necessarily bad or good - just different. Real different.

Anyways. For the newbies or any existing fans of my work with Helm, Tension or Scalene, I sincerely hope you dig what I’m putting together here. I’m attempting to engage you. Knock down some walls, get personal, get honest, and maybe a little brutal. My lyrics and song structures. Connections. Disconnections. And, more importantly, where it all got born. What it means. Why it means it."

Stone describes 'Carry The Black' as being "a rock song with a black soul", adding that it's "a metaphor for the shadows we carry with us, trudging through this swamp of mistakes and bad decisions in the hope of reaching something beautiful". He also states that "...this song is about buckling to all of it. About giving in and living with the pure disdain for our weakness as a species. We are forced to live with, and even enjoy, everything we hate the most just to survive this mess."

Upbeat stuff, to be sure...

Check out 'Carry The Black' below!

You can watch a studio log of Lucas Stone and his co-conspirators talking about their collaborative work for 'Carry The Black' below.