Shinedown are still hitting the road in heavy support of 2015's Threat to Survival, but have already begun to peer beyond their immediate horizon with a bunch of new music written for their next record. Frontman Brent Smith appeared on Loudwire Nights affiliate WGRD in Grand Rapids, Mich., and spoke about the material becoming a potential first-ever concept album for the veteran rockers.

"Eric Bass, our bass player, when we were [on tour] with Five Finger Death Punch in 2016 — we did those 36 cities — he instinctively, every day, at the beginning of that tour, he said he was going to walk in every day and he was going to write a composition and record it," said Smith. The singer went on to state that Bass has "22 pieces" and that he had just heard five of them for the first time, neglecting to listen to them on the road because he "was in a different mindset" for himself, focusing on the production of Shinedown's show.

Adding he has some catching up to do in regards to familiarizing himself with all of this material, Smith laid out some grandiose expectations, commenting, "What he has written — and it's not lip service, man — what he has tapped into here, it's quite remarkable. I think people might be looking at the first legitimate concept record from the band."

Smith also went on to detail how with previous albums the band did not have a lot of material that was written before their studio sessions, collaborating together in the same room. "It's been a minute since I've walked into a room with compositions that are not necessarily finished, but they're laid out; there's some ground work done. So I'm actually looking forward to that. 'Cause it's inspiring. And it's cool, because [Eric] was inspired every day, and you can hear it in the music," the frontman said, also noting that there's the chance that not all 22 pieces will make it onto the album.

Shinedown will hit the road for some stateside touring between March 31 and April 17 before heading to Europe to open for Iron Maiden. See the list of U.S. stops at our 2017 Guide to Rock + Metal Tours.

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