Storytelling is the great, albeit fading, American pastime. It predated writing and in many instances, was told in song. In modern times, many musicians have approached their music from a storytelling point of view: Dylan, Springsteen and Waits to name a few. Chicago’s Americana metal outfit, HUNTSMEN, are carrying the torch for heavy bands to be added to that list.

HUNTSMEN have released 2 EPs, 2014’s Post War and 2016’s The Colonel. When it came time to work on the band’s first full length, vocalist/guitarist, Chris Kang wanted to tackle the paradox of American nationalism and pride, given we are a country of immigrants. “I always have conflicting feelings,” speaks Kang, “where I'm really proud of the inclusive and optimistic ideal it represents- my father found opportunity here to carve a life that just didn't exist back home- but I'm really ashamed of so much of its past and present. I wanted to make an album that spent some time with these confusing feelings, and that was American Scrap.”

American Scrap, due out Feb. 23rd on Prosthetic Records, was recorded at Treehouse Analog Studio in Chicago. The opening, mostly acoustic track Bury Deep, is the perfect first chapter to the album; with its ending of feedback and electric guitar, it foreshadows something heavy, but then swiftly goes into the dark, moody Pyre. Atlantic City starts off in a post-rock fury, sure to tell-tale some catastrophic event while the album’s epic closer, The Last President with guest vocalist, Aimee Bueno, is the perfect ending to the story.

Spoiler alert, if you’re the type to open a book and read the ending, continue on, as Kang describes the final track, “the last American President gives a final TV address to the nation then has a nice dinner with her family before euthanizing them & hanging herself before the bombs fall.”