Code Orange Opens The Door to Next Phase with Billy Corgan Collab 'Take Shape' and New Album

Industrial hardcore band Code Orange have been at it again with clues and hints that something new was brewing. They launched intotheabove.com via their socials and followed up with billboards and clues in WWE2K promos (which fits with their association with wrestler Bray Wyatt).

We speculate the site name itself teases a new album called The Above, and artwork available on DSPs in Australia back this; which is an interesting title that inverts the theme of previous release Underneath. [Update: The Above is announced and set for release on Sept 29th - pre-order below]

https://twitter.com/codeorangetoth/status/1679535223250247697?s=20

Opening the door provides access to studio photos and videos that document the creation of their new album, which has already been previewed by the double A-side single 'Grooming My Replacement/The Game' (our review here). The site has been updated daily with new clips that the band say pull "back the curtain to document the space between our process and the art itself".

While the blog is cool, what we really want is new music and the band have just dropped their long-anticipated collaboration with Smashing Pumpkins icon Billy Corgan. 'Take Shape' is an industrial groove in which Eric "Shade" Balderose and Reba Meyers lay down a pummeling riff over Joe Golman's distorted bass. Frontman Jami Morgan handles clean vocals on the verses before growling through the chorus. It's catchy with a cool line to "just spread your wings." Corgan pops up in the second half when the distortion drops out and is replaced with an acoustic (yes, acoustic) guitar line and Billy's distinct croon.

Where 'Grooming My Replacement/The Game' felt like a neat throwback to their hardcore roots, 'Take Shape' is an evolution more in line with standalone 2021 single 'Out for Blood' (review here). It's catchy and will be a banger live. It's different to the noise onslaught of Underneath, suggesting The Above will be a varied album that might see the band hit new heights (as we already suggested they deserve). This will be the first album in which Morgan doesn't handle live drums with Max Portnoy now embedded as the band's kit man.

Words: KJ Draven (Twitter and Instagram).

Pre-order The Above here

Code orange - The Above tracklisting

1. Never Far Apart
2. Theatre Of Cruelty
3. Take Shape (feat. Billy Corgan)
4. The Mask Of Sanity Slips
5. Mirror
6. A Drone Opting Out Of The Hive
7. I Fly
8. Splinter The Soul
9. The Game
10. Grooming My Replacement
11. Snapshot
12. Circle Through
13. But A Dream…
14. The Above

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-C5ug_-u-8